Iron Gear
by Tjin
Summary: Fallout from the Halloween Ep, Where Xander dresses in a Tuxedo Ethan picked up in L.A.
1. Iron Gear 1

(A/N) I Do not own BtVS or Iron Man

--

Xander cursed under his breath when the welding torch spit at him as he worked.

Halloween had been three weeks ago and Xander, in all his infinite wisdom had dressed in a tuxedo and he had intended to go as James Bond or something, but the lack of funds had been just enough to get him the tux and nothing more. A tuxedo that had been bought from a Good Will store in Los Angeles a week earlier.

This wouldn't have been so bad if all he had ended up with was the portfolio of a semi-rich business man. Instead he had changed into a multi billion dollar business owner with a secret.

Xander stepped back and admired his handiwork. Nowhere near as impressive as the current Iron Man out there, it was still light years better than the original clunky design.

By cannibalizing several dozen TV's and microwaves, he had managed a rather effective microwave beam that had already proven very effective against Vampires. Due to their bulky nature though, he had been forced to incorporate a shoulder mounted system with only limited tracking capabilities.

"As long as it all works." Xander muttered as he started to put the heavy grey and red armor on. Weighing in at almost a hundred pounds, Xander wished again for even a couple of the micro servos Stark enterprises had access to. Instead he had been forced to use an external pulley and hydraulic system and that had managed to take the dependant weight down to forty pounds

Shrugging off the vulnerabilities such a system created, Xander pulled the helmet on and grinned as the rudimentary systems came online. "Let's take you on a test run," he muttered to the armor as he turned and walked carefully out of the warehouse.

It was always better to move slowly when testing something like this so you don't fall over and spend the rest of the night flailing like a tipped turtle.

--

Xander had decided on an obstacle course, followed by a run around a four block radius as the first 'Stress Test' on the suit design. His first mistake had been expecting it to be a simple test.

He was through the obstacle course and halfway through the run when he heard a muffled scream through the armor.

//Note to self, put external audio hook-up in.// Xander thought as he turned down the alley running between two warehouses.

Looking at the three males struggling with a woman, Xander winced and made a second mental note even as he moved towards the group. //Thermal overlay is definitely a must.// he decided as he flicked the small switch and moved his helmet so the small crosshairs centered over one of the antagonist's back.

He hesitated for a moment, afraid of pulling the trigger on the small chance this was not a vampire attack. The memory of the poodle that had accidentally been hit by the microwave cannon still made his stomach roll.

Any belief that it was a random human crime was washed away when two of the three vamped out as the woman struggled.

Grinning, Xander pushed the firing stud down.

--

Michael Kane gave another silent thanks to whichever deity sent the slayer to Sunnydale.

Since she had shown up, Michael hadn't had to share a single meal with any self styled 'Master' vampire.

Of course he did have to be careful where he hunted and he always made sure to toss his victims into the ocean as the tide was going out.

He grinned as two other Vampires helped hold the struggling woman down.

His grin dropped at an odd whirring sound broke through the woman's struggles and muffled cries. Turning slightly Michael's last sight was a red and grey armored form before a short crack of thunder heralded the end of Michael Kane.

--

Xander was surprised as the response he got as instead of staring in shock the two remaining vampires dropped their victim and charged.

As the first went into a classic tackle, Xander took a step back as the heavy steel armor took most of the force.

Reaching down as the undead scraped at his armored shell with claws, Xander sunk all his fingers into the vampire's skull and pulled the twitching form off him as the other tried desperately to find some flesh point to sink his fangs into.

Reaching with his free hand, Xander's gauntleted fingers grasped the creature around the neck and applied pressure. Finally feeling his fingers sink into the soft flesh around its spine Xander used his armored strength to rip the vital bone structure out of the vampire's body.

As the last vampire looked up at the dust of the ex-vampire, he made a decision that might have saved his life. Letting go of the armored form, he ran around the slow moving figure and headed for the exit.

Xander smiled again as he turned and placed the crosshairs over the fleeing vampire's back and pressed the firing stud for a second time.

Grrr… fffzt.

Blinking once, Xander looked over at the smoking remains of his shoulder mounted cannon and sighed.

"Back to the drawing board," he grumbled as he turned back to the frightened woman and stared at the empty alley. "Guess she got the idea to run." He mumbled before finishing up his run.

He was unhappy about the vampire getting away more for the chance of his armors existence getting out to the general public than not dusting the undead leech. The last thing he needed was Stark Enterprises Chief of Security coming to Sunnydale on the rumors of Iron Tech Armor.

--

(A/N) So what do you think? Love it, Hate it, Wish it buried under the garbage of Voyager Season 1 scripts BtVS Season 7 tapes?

Send me your opinions and reviews PLEASE! I love reviews, I live for reviews. Reviews feed the plot bunnies that make me write things like this. Think of the poor bunnies… THINK OF THEM!

-Tjin


	2. Iron Gear 2

Due to insane amounts of feedback, here's part two.

--

Xander groaned as he banged his head on the table before looking back up at the source of his pain.

"Once again, the armored vigilante now being dubbed 'Gear' seems intent on protecting the small town of Sunnydale, California. Little is known of this new guy on the scene, but he is already gathering quite a list of saves in the small town, everything from breaking up a PCP gang to protecting the civilians from wild animal attacks." The reporter on the screen said as she spoke into a microphone.

"This reporter was curious as to iwhy/i such a sleepy little town was in need of saving, Going undercover, I found a cesspool of corruption in the local government dating back over a hundred years to the very founding of the city. The mayor in particular seems to be personally financing several of these gangs to keep the local population intimidated, only he knows why. His corrupt dealings were hidden by the local police chief, several prominent detectives iand/i city councilmembers through blackmail, bribery and extortion."

Xander stared at the tv screen. Of all the people in the world for him to have saved, a high ranking news reporter definitely had to be the worst choice.

The woman had been hounding his armored boots since day one, reporting every save he made on the national news.

The Sunnydale effect of 'gangs on PCP' and 'wild animal attacks' still held, the good news was the demonic population had gone to ground, not wishing to draw attention to themselves on national television.

Shaking off the wish that he had never saved her, Xander looked back at the face of his bane. "After an emergency election, newly appointed Mayor Donald Chase has sworn to clean up the town, his wish is that masked vigilantes will have no place in his home town's future. For National Network News, I'm Alice Case signing off."

Xander flicked off the TV and headed towards his armory in preparation for his nightly patrol.

Buffy and Willow were convinced he had been staying home to study, a lie he could keep as his grades had improved dramatically in the nine weeks since that horrible Halloween.

Grunting, Xander snapped the new microwave cannon in place. He had found several critical faults in the wiring and insulation of the new models of microwave ovens. //Probably so they short out and die quicker than the older beasts,// he mentally growled in disgust at the thought of companies more focused on making a buck than providing the best product to their customers.

Shaking the thought off Xander started to attach the armor. There was hunting to be done.

--

Xander ran through the night on heavy foam rubber boots, he had found the vampires feared him and ran when they heard his heavy footsteps and the foam rubber made him much quieter and reduced the jarring feeling he had to deal with.

He had already dealt with three minor vampire packs and a fungus demon when his blood ran cold at a familiar shout.

"GEAR!"

Slowing to a stop, Xander turned towards the shouting form and resisted the urge to run again. "Miss Case, what can I do for you?" he asked casually as he remembered his audio synthesizer kept most emotions from his voice.

"I just want to talk to you, no tricks, no traps." She promised as she came to a stop several feet from her quarry.

Xander actually smirked, though he knew the helmet would hide that fact. "You're a reporter Miss Case, of course there's going to be traps." He said simply before looking around. "And while a prolonged conversation would most likely be… memorable, I'm afraid I must continue my patrol." He stated before turning back towards his original path.

Xander resisted the urge to roll his eyes when the reporter followed beside him and turned on a recorder.

"So Mr. Gear, Organic or robotic?" she asked as she continued to pace him.

"Shouldn't that be animal, vegetable or mineral?" Xander quipped and flinched as the response gave away more than he had wanted to. Glancing over, Xander immediately hated the smug smile on the woman's face.

"So who are you really?" She asked obliviously as Xander lengthened his stride in the hopes of outdistancing her.

//Now I remember why Stark put rocket boots in the blasted armor to begin with.// Xander thought as she sped up to pace him again.

"So?" she pressed as Xander finally sighed.

"So what?"

"So, who are you really?"

She was persistent, Xander noted. Finally restraining the growl, Xander looked over at her. "I'm Batman." He stated before picking up the pace yet again.

"But under the…" she got before Xander cut her off.

Finally stopping, Xander turned to face her. "Look Alice, Do you mind if I call you Alice? Never mind. I need to focus on my patrol right now and as dangerous as it is to say this to any woman, you are a distraction." Xander stated plainly before turning back on his path.

He made it almost five steps before she shouted a single phrase to make him stop.

"Why do you fight vampires?"

Turning in midstep Xander stomped back over to her. "I'm sorry I don't think I heard you." The armor clad Scooby said carefully as the short reporter glared at him defiantly.

"Unless you left your hearing in Bogotá, I think you heard me just fine. Why do you fight vampires?" She said in a far more measured tone.

Xander considered lying for several seconds before looking down at the stubborn glare that would do any Summers woman proud.

"I fight them because they're there."

Nodding at his answer the reporter pulled the cassette out of thee recorder and handed it to the armored form that had saved her. "I'll be seeing you around, Gear." She said before turning on her heel and walking away.

--

"Sir, we have a report of probable Iron Tech in use in Sunnydale."

"How reliable."

"Several eyewitness sightings along with several news reports. Should I prep a team?"

"No, send the report to Stark Enterprises. Leave Iron Man to clean it up."


	3. Iron Gear 3

Xander stood in the darkened room and stared at his foe, his nemesis, his darkest enemy that haunted him every day of his life.

With all his Willpower Xander turned and walked away.

Behind him a bottle of liquor sat alone in the darkened room.

--

Xander scribbled some base notes on a piece of scratch paper before picking up the recorder.

"Alexander Harris Prototype stake launcher test, take fourteen. I am attempting an electro-mag launched stake for possible adaptation to the Gear suit." Xander spoke as he set up the mannequin at the far end of the warehouse and carefully targeted the system to the Dummies chest before clicking on the recorder again. "A simple band placed around the stake allows the Magnetic Polarizer to grasp it for launch, this system has proven much more reliable and far cheaper then my original attempt to incase said stake in a break away shell." Xander said before stopping and considering the variables he had to deal with.

"While accuracy leaves much to be desired, this is a problem I can work out in further models. Test fourteen commencing. Charging Electro-Mag System." Xander said as he tapped a couple keys and nodded at the green lights came on in sequence. "Firing."

With a sound similar to a paintball gun firing, Xander watched as the stake flew from the launcher and slammed into the mannequin with enough force to punch through the sawdust filled target and slam into the concrete wall behind.

Walking down the range, Xander bent to look through the hole in the mannequin before clicking the recorder on again. "Test fourteen was a resounding success, recommend reducing power charge to decrease punch through of targets." Xander said before sticking his finger in the hole where the dummies eye had been. "Secondary recommendation, find viable way to increase stake accuracy."

Xander spun as an alarm behind him warned him of impending danger.

With a muffled curse, Xander ran for the door and out into the morning sunlight.

He was late for school.

--

Xander walked up to his two friends as the exited the history class.

"I don't know, I don't think so. They seemed pretty friendly." Buffy said in confusion as Xander got within hearing range.

"Who's friendly?" He asked as he tried to break into the conversation.

"No one." "Angel and a girl." Xander's two friends responded together, Xander grinned as Buffy commented on Willow sharing.

"Hey, it's me. If Angel is doing something wrong I wanna know about it. Cuz you know it gives me a happy." Xander said with a smile as the three walk into the student lounge.

"Well I'm glad someone has a happy." Buffy said glumly as she thought of Angel and the dark haired woman.

"You're right, I do have a happy, it's a very big happy. Hey I even call it Mr. happy, and is this conversation really as nasty as it sounds?" Xander said before shaking off the preceding words. "Well you just need some cheering up, and I know just the thing." Xander said before jumping back into a pose. "Crazy dance party at the Bronze." He suggested as Buffy crossed her arms and stared at the floor. "Slightly chipper party at the Bronze?" he tried as he dropped the pose and watched Buffy shrug. "Very calm party at the Bronze?" he pressed before sitting next to Willow. "Absurdly depressed moping at the Bronze, with lots of brooding and angst." He finished as a dark haired teen walked up behind the slayer.

"You might try a box of Oreo's dunked in apple juice, but maybe she's over that phase."

--

Xander walked into the Bronze and glanced at the gathered crowd before focusing on Buffy, Willow and the new guy that just seemed to bug him.

Walking up to the three, Xander made sure he was behind the male as he tried to line up a shot at the pool table. "HEY guys." Xander said with a smirk as the dark haired teen's shot went horribly off course and sunk the black eight ball. "Buffy, Willow and… no no don't tell me I got it. Chevy, No Dodge no…" Xander trailed off as the blonde slayer rolled her eyes and started setting the table up again.

"It's Ford." The newest transfer to Sunnydale high said as he offered Xander his hand.

Taking it Xander ignored the cold creeping feeling he got up the back of his neck. "Ford, right I knew it was a domestic brand, well it could be worse I know a Porche, a Tomas Adam Hawk and probably most disturbing is Ms. Cee Phyllis over at the Sunnydale Motor Lodge." Xander said and tried to settle his misgivings as Ford snorted.

"Yeah, Ford was just about to tell us about the ninth grade Beauty contest and the uh, swimsuit competition." Willow said cheerfully as Buffy glared at the smirking Los Angelian.

"No he wasn't," Buffy warned as Ford broke the racked balls and shrugged at the blonde.

"You can't touch me Summers, I know all your dark secrets." Ford threatened playfully as Xander sat next to his redhead friend and watched the game.

Xander watched the byplay between the two before a blonde at the entrance caught his attention as she talked to a tall man.

Cursing silently, Xander excused himself from the group and followed as the two went outside.

One Xander recognized as a vampire due to the outdated clothes, the other he knew as his own personal bane.

Ms. Alice Case.

Xander carefully felt for the stake he kept in his pocket as he hurried toward the entrance, growling as he wondered who was more annoying. //Vampires or reporters, Vampires or reporters? Why can't I only have to deal with one blood sucker at a freaking time?// he wondered before shaking off the thought.

With his luck she would be turned and he would have to deal with a true blood sucking reporter.

"At least it's not lawyers." He grumbled as he finally made it outside.


	4. Iron Gear 4

Have you ever had one of those days, where everything is going along just fine and dandy, not a care in the world until Murphy decides to stick his fat nose into matters.

That was the kind of day Alexander Lavelle Harris was having as he flew through the air.

As he crashed into a collection of cans, Xander took a moment to send a curse towards the spirit before rolling back to his feet and turning to face the snarling Vampire.

"I'm going to bleed you dry, meat bag." The Vampire growled as Xander got a better grip on his cross and pulled a spare stake from behind his back.

"Heard that before, maybe you should get some new material." Xander taunted as he tried to figure out a way to get past the blood sucker so he could help the unconscious reporter before she bled out on the street.

Catching his glance, the vampire grinned evilly. "Don't worry about your friend, after I drain you I think I'll turn her. She'll make an excellent vampire." He mocked before his eyes got wide in surprise and the undead exploded into dust.

Standing in place behind the vampire's last corporeal location was a tall athletic teen that glared down at the dust pile for several seconds before looking up at Xander.

"What do you tink you are doing?" She demanded as she quickly moved to hide her stake from his sight.

"Umm… fending off an orthodontist's wet dream and hoping the slayer would show up to save me?" Xander joked before he was hauled off his feet and slammed into the side of the Bronze, the stake reappearing to poke him in the chest.

"How did you know I was here." The dark skinned teen demanded as Xander tried to blink away the stars that dominated his sight.

"I… Da… Wha?" Xander tried after he was dropped to the ground to stare up at the accented teen as she placed her hands on her hips and stared at him imperiously.

"I am Kendra, De Vampire Slayer." She declared as Xander blinked in shock.

"Okay… that's confusing."

--

Kendra walked warily into the dimly lit warehouse, the unconscious woman carefully held in one arm, the other gripped her stake in order to deal with any possible attack from the young man that was leading her.

She knew she would be in trouble when the watchers found out about this, by rights she should have disappeared as soon as the vampire was destroyed, but this boy was an oddity; he had known what he was facing and yet still risked his life in an attempt to save the woman she carried now. Then he had shown knowledge of both Slayers and Watchers and she had to find out where he had gotten that information.

"Lay her down on the cot." Xander said distractedly as he tried to figure out why he had brought not just one but two women back to his lab.

If you had told him a couple of weeks earlier that he would have two admittedly beautiful women in his 'Secret Hideout' Xander's mind would have gone to a decidedly naughty place. Now however Xander had learned one truly valuable lesson from his recent Halloween adventure.

'Women had to be Nosey.' They hadn't learned from Pandora, They never learned from the cat. They simply could not resist snooping.

Not that he was arrogant enough to lay all nosey problems on women, but after dealing with Harmony, Cordelia and the some airhead Cheerleaders, he had to admit that they had gotten the lion's share.

Xander watched as the supposed slayer set the reporter down on the cot and quickly checked her vitals in a professional manner before turning to him.

"So who are you and how do you know about de slayers?" Kendra Demanded.

Taking a breath Xander decided on the truth. (More or less.)

"I'm a local demon hunter and I've helped your predecessor in the past." Xander said carefully as he tried to hedge around the truth until he figured out what was going on.

Kendra's eyes narrowed as she watched the man carefully. "How is it you claim ta be a demon hunter when you have so much trouble wit one vampire?" She asked in distrust.

Xander actually snorted at that as he picked up a remote from beside the cot and activated the armory lights.

"Because I usually go in slightly heavier hunting gear." Xander said as he looked at the clunky monstrosity he had created with a mixture of both pride and disgust.

"Da Iron Knight."

Xander blinked at Kendra's whispered words before looking at her in confusion.

Kendra continued to stare at the armor for several seconds before noticing his gaze and blushing at the attention. "De watchers council told me to look you up if I required assistance." Kendra said as she wondered at the odds of running into one of the few friendly beings in this cursed place.

For his part, Xander was trying to figure out how he came to the attention of Giles' bosses.

--

(Sunnydale High Library)

Giles picked up the phone tiredly as he rubbed some of the soreness out of his eyes.

"Sunnydale High Library, Rupert Giles speaking"

"…"

"Are you sure?"

".."

"Yes, Yes I understand."

"…"

"Very well, good bye."

Giles hung up the phone and wondered at the information he had just received.

"A Rogue slayer on the hellmouth." He whispered before picking up a watchers diary that he knew had dealings with rogue slayers.

--

Willow walked down the street carefully as she tried not to think of being eaten by the local undead population.

Of course trying to 'Not' think of something only brings up all the reasons why you shouldn't think about that something, which is of course thinking about it and of course defeats the purpose of trying not to think about it in the first place.

Needless to say Willow was not fairing well on remaining calm.

"Miss?"

Willow shrieked at the sound as she looked around frantically for the source.

"Up here." The voice said as Willow finally looked up and gasped in shock at the red and gold armored man that floated there.

"Sorry to startle you, but my systems seem to be having a problem and as embarrassing as this is… I need some directions. Is this Sunnydale by any chance?" the legendary Iron Man asked as the man within was glad of the helmet that hid his flushed face.

Willow stared at the floating figure for several seconds before his question worked its way through her shock and she slowly nodded in confirmation.

"Good… can you point me towards the warehouse district then." He asked and took her numb pointing as an indication.

"Well, thanks for the help. And if it's at all possible, do you think we could keep this between us?" he asked and decided that the slow head nod was confirmation enough before putting more energy to his boots and lifting off in the direction he was given to the warehouse district.

Willow stared at the spot of air the super hero had recently vacated for several seconds before she remembered why it was a bad idea to stand around outside after dark.

As she hurried home she didn't notice the blinking traffic camera as it pulled back from where it was watching the conversation.

--

"Sir"

The older man looked up from the paperwork tiredly to stare at the man waiting for him.

"We have confirmation that Iron Man is in Sunnydale Sir."

The older man considered that meaning for several seconds before putting a cigar into his jaw and smiling around it. "Get me video feeds from that town, I want to see this." He growled, in the first good mood he'd had in days.

He ignored the man fleeing his office as he tried to imagine the throw down about to happen on the hellmouth.

His good mood lasted several seconds before he looked down at the mountain of paperwork he had to do.

With a sigh Nick Fury picked up the latest report on the HYDRA Situation.

--

(A/N) Hope you all enjoy this, took me a while to write it out.


	5. Iron Gear 5

Tony Stark, Billionaire industrial giant and Super Hero double checked his suit computer as he tried to localize the anomaly that was messing with his scanners.

Deciding it needed a complete overhaul, the man behind the Invincible Iron Man landed softly before his objective and looked around for any signs of traps or trouble before aiming his hand at the center of the Warehouse door.

"Identity Confirmed 'IronMan' Welcome to Sunnydale Armory."

As the cleverly concealed blast doors slid back iron man flew into the Sunnydale Armory for the first time.

It had been built by subcontractors of Stark Enterprises and programmed from a Satellite station in L.A.

Had he remained where he was, the superhero would have seen the Warehouse door across from his slide open and a dark skinned female carry an unconscious reporter out of the building with his objective for being here close behind.

Fortunately for Alexander Harris, the Chief of security for Stark Enterprises was busy trying to nail down the interference of his systems in order to stay around no longer then absolutely needed.

--

"Right now the demonic population is trying to stay under the radar until the media frenzy Miss Case here stirred up dies down. Unfortunately that brings it's own complications with it as Iron Man will probably show up in town sometime in the next few days, something I look foreword to with the enthusiasm of a nine year old going to the dentist." Xander explained sourly as the two hunters moved through the Sunnydale night towards the reporter's hotel.

"Why is dat a problem sir? Isn't he one of da heroes?" Kendra asked, confused, as Xander flinched underneath his armored helmet.

"Yes, yes he is. The problem is that my armor bears a striking resemblance to some of the earlier Iron Man suits, which puts both of us in a rather uncomfortable position, as the 'Iron Tech' is almost universally NOT patented. That means that technically I am allowed to build my own version, but he can still hit me with Industrial Espionage lawsuits. Though in order to do that he would have to release the technology to the courts so they can see that it is actually stolen from his design." Xander explained as Kendra tried to follow the reasoning behind the problem.

"Why is it not patented? Do not companies do that so others don't steal dere design?" The heavily accented teen asked as Xander nodded in approval of the question.

"Yes, as a matter of fact they do, the problem arose first with the computer companies you see. If you have enough money you have a passing fair chance of getting the patent and simply building something of your own that is identical down to a very few details, then getting your own patent and shrug off the lawsuits because of the minor changes you made." Xander said as Kendra nodded in turn. "With something as potentially world altering as Iron Tech it was decided that no one could steal what wasn't written down. It hasn't stopped people from trying, but for the most part they've had limited success."

"Den why don he go after de others and leave you be? You can't be da biggest problem he has."

"No I'm not, but my armor is more advanced than any of the other imposters and that scares him. He wants to find out how I managed to build what I did and either make me stop or force me to join him." The armored teen said as they walked. "The problem is that I built this and I'm not going to stop and I can't join him because I have a job to do here."

"So you seem ta have all de cards, why are you scared of 'im?" Kendra asked as the young Slayer kept careful watch on their surroundings.

"First off, I'm not scared of him." Xander defended as he searched for the right words to express his situation. "While he can't take me to court for the Iron Tech theft, he can have me arrested for possessing military grade weapons and keep it from ever going to court, thanks to the national secrets act of '92. As long as he can prove to either the U.N. courts or a legitimate multinational law enforcement agency that I am a threat to any given country's sovereignty, they can hold me indefinitely without any due process." Xander explained as the dark skinned teen stared at him in shock.

"I thought dere were laws against dat sort of ting?"

Nodding at the question, Xander turned down one of the side streets and started approaching the hotel from the rear. "There are, in each individual nation there is an entire slew of laws protecting, corrupting and downright oppressing each and every person's given rights. The U.N. actually has no law concerning the length of time prisoners can be held, only the treatment they must receive." Xander explained as they reached the building they were looking for. "This is the place, her room is on the second floor, number 214." Xander said and watched as the burdened Slayer broke into the building with an ease he would never get used to.

"Well, well, well. What have we here? The white knight guarding the damsel's castle as she sleeps, or some sick pervert hoping to catch a glimpse."

Xander turned and slowly enhanced the light amplification in his armor to its max and grimaced at the green distorted pixilation he got. He would definitely need to work on that when he got back.

"I don't think you're one to be talking about sick perverts Willy. Either explain to me why I shouldn't crush you like a bug or tell me something that may avert my attention."

"Whoa, slow down there, Tin-Man. Just making a funny, geez! Look the word on the street is that some of the demons have decided to put an all points bounty out on your little friend, I thought I might stop by and let her know."

"Out of the goodness of your heart I'm sure." Xander's sarcasm cut at the little man as he flinched back slightly.

"Believe it or not, the broad's actually been real good for business. All those cranky night hunters you and your friends play with have to spend their time at my place rather then hunting and risk being exposed." The bartender said before simply shrugging. "Just thought someone might like to know, the longer she sticks around the more money I get to make."

Watching the worm walk off, Xander sighed underneath his armor. Whether or not the rat man was lying about his reasoning was beside the point, to date, Willy had never entirely lied when he had ratted someone out. Misplaced or misspoke the truth, that was well within the oily man's ability, being slimy enough you walked away in disgust was one of his better abilities.

But lie, not likely.

"Looks like it's going to be a long night," Xander muttered to himself as the newest Slayer rejoined him after her adventure in Breaking and Entering.

--

"Wow, so just like that he just came right out and said it?"

"Yeah, just like that, he just looked at me and asked 'Can you point me in the direction of the warehouse district?' and then flew off." Willow said into the phone as she forgot the request to keep it between her and the hero in her enthusiasm to tell her best female friend.

"Wow, compared to that, Ford knowing I'm the Slayer kind of pales into insignificance." Buffy said in shock as Willow started to babble about Buffy's friend knowing her secret.

--

(A/N) Okay, again not a lot happening in this, just trying to set the stage for what's to come.

Also I know I'm not spot on when it comes to some of the characters, but I'm trying to advance the storyline as best I know how.

Sorry if that offends you.

I did have a whole 'Nick Fury Vs. The Watchers Council' Sub Plot I wanted to work in, but… it just didn't happen. Maybe next time.

I also wanted to throw in some 'Victor Von Doom accepts the last Kalderash Gypsies into his lands' and maybe some 'Captain America Trains Riley Finn' but I think that line of thought has been done to death.

Hope you all enjoyed my little fic and give me lots of bright shiny reviews.

Also Thanks Duchess.

-Tjin


	6. Iron Gear 6

Xander sighed as he stumbled back into his base and started stripping off the heavy armor.

He and Kendra had split the night shift. Taking the first half himself while she ran Iron Gear's patrol, then she caught some sleep and later relieved him of his burden.

He felt bad about leaving her there to watch the reporter's hotel alone, but he had given the young slayer a panic button connected to his suit as he set off for his own patrol before returning to his base for a few hours sleep.

As he peeled the sweat slick undershirt off, Xander looked between the inviting cot and the newest addition to his invention collection. Considering it, he finally sighed and walked over to the coffin like box he had created.

The 'Hyper Chamber' he had created used an audio spectrum pulse along with Infrared LED lights to revitalize the body in only a few hours. In theory it should allow him to work the same hours as a slayer without exhausting himself. That of course was dependant on whether he had gotten the frequencies right. If he was wrong he would be lucky to wake up the next day with only a mild headache and a bad sunburn.

Gritting his teeth, Xander finally turned on the chamber and climbed inside.

Nothing gambled, nothing gained.

--

Tony Stark cursed as the computer report came up the exact same as the fourteen times before it. Sensors Functional, Computer Functional, no anomalies detected.

Looking over at his helmet, the billionaire sighed as it showed, Radar, EM, Infrared and pulse sensors as blank. As far as his armor was concerned he was in the middle of nothing.

Turning off the system, Tony walked over to the bed and collapsed into it before plugging his chest piece in.

In a few minutes the Invincible Iron Man was asleep less then a hundred yards from his target.

--

Kendra the vampire slayer watched the hotel with a hunter's eye as she waited for her prey to show itself.

As she waited, her mind started to wander to her companion. The Iron Knight had been a new addition to the Allies list in the watchers council with orders to attempt 'Peaceful Negotiations' for the continued protection of the Hellmouth.

Kendra remembered the talks she and Mr. Zabuto had shared concerning the man the television media had started calling, 'Gear.'

Thinking of her Watcher, Kendra forced the tears down and turned her full attention back towards the hotel.

She couldn't be distracted like that while on a mission.

--

Rupert Giles closed the last book and sighed. While he was extremely grateful for the earlier warning, he could have wished for more information concerning the Srayer and why she had gone Rogue.

The council itself had always been split concerning the treatment of rogues, the current ruling class favored an immediate strike, killing the slayer before they could join the enemy and calling another before things got out of hand.

The Giles, Price and Biltmore families, on the other hand, led the opposition of this and simply followed a 'watch and wait' strategy. Either the rogue would join the other side and would then be put down, or they would go up against an opponent that they were unequipped to deal with and another slayer would be called.

Rupert Giles, for his part, disliked this idea as well, but it was the lesser of two evils.

Taking off his glasses, the Watcher rubbed his eyes tiredly before glancing up at the clock. With another sigh, he forced himself to his feet and pulled his jacket off the back of the chair before heading towards his car. There wasn't much more he could do.

--

Billy 'Ford' Fordham walked carefully down the steps of the Sundown Club, he and his fellow believers had rented for the coming month.

He wondered what the owners would think once they noticed the door handle had been cut off the heavy steel entrance door but the young teen simply shrugged the thought off. He doubted it would matter, he would be dead in a few days and then he would have what every teenager dreamed of, to die young and leave a good looking corpse.

Looking at the others, Billy smiled as he tried to ignore the pounding headache. Just a few more days.

--

Drusilla stared out into the darkness as the wind whispered by the warehouse doors, she knew that it was dangerous here, the funny Tin Man had claimed this town for his own.

Only he wasn't funny, and every time she tried to warn her Spike, he only laughed and talked about witches and flying monkeys and a wizard. Sometimes Dru wondered why she kept someone as crazy as her Spike around.

Outside she heard the terrified scream of one of Sunnydale's residents before smiling. "That's why." She whispered as her lover returned with her dinner.

--

Alice Case sat on her hotel room bed and quietly rubbed her throat, it wasn't the first time she had been attacked by a vampire but it had almost been the last.

She had found out about the 'darker' side of most stories when she was just starting out in journalism, she had been pulled aside by her mentor and the entire thing had been spelled out for her. What they where, how they had come to be and why no one must ever know.

She had refused to be a part of that massive a cover up, she had shot the footage and prepared to expose the entire thing to the world. She would have too, if her producer had not sat her down and explained what would happen if she did.

No matter the evidence she gathered, it would be found false under sufficient scrutiny, she would never work in the field again and her life would likely be forfeit within a month and in less than a week everyone would forget the whole thing. After all, the masses have a very short attention span and a big lie where everything is fine is easier to believe than a big truth where it's not.

Still rubbing her neck, Alice Case drifted off to sleep.

--

(A/N) Okay, wow… that has to be one of the LEAST exciting chapters I've ever done, but I did have to lay out where everyone is.

Sorry about the long delay and all, but… the small sliver of time I had managed to find where I can write has been stolen, I don't know when or even where I'm going to find some more time to work on all my stories, but I assure you that I will continue.

Thanks for all the reviews in advance.

-Tjin


	7. Iron Gear 7

Click

Alexander Harris prototype stake launcher test, take forty-seven. By adding a screw pattern to the projectile, I've managed to increase accuracy by over ninety percent. The projectile has been reduced by over sixty percent itself, leaving said projectile at a little under three inches long, these 'bolts,' for lack of a better word, have proven effective against the dominant hostiles I have engaged. A heart shot is difficult in the extreme, so I am upgrading the computer and sensor systems onboard the Gear suit. On board magazine capacity is also prohibitive to extended use. As a forearm launcher is the most practical means of deployment, this has reduced expected magazine size to under eight rounds before reloading is required. Test Forty-Seven commencing

Click

Xander set the recorder down and pushed a small button, the original 'snap' had been far too sharp a sound to be used against the Sunnydale undead, the small size of the projectile had thankfully reduced the sound to a manageable level, especially once he worked a baffling system into the firing chamber.

Xander smiled as the Click from the weapon was noticeably quieter than his recorder. Powering down the magnetic, Xander double checked to make sure everything was 'safed' before walking downrange to his target.

--

Tony Stark wanted to kick his computer system. "What do you mean nothing changed? Last night I couldn't find this base without asking for directions and now everything is fine, therefore SOMETHING HAS CHANGED." The technologist yelled at the system and rubbed his head as he got the exact same response.

Sensor functional, computer functional, all systems nominal, report log shows no errors in systems.

"Yes I know you didn't get a report log of any errors because according to you there were no errors last night, that doesn't change the fact that you were unable to show me ANYTHING!" He explained in exasperation before finally giving an order to the computer. "Pull up the recordings of last nights sensor logs." Stark ordered and nodded at the confirmation. "Now overlay it with the current sensor report and explain how they don't match up."

Sensors match within ninety-seven percent accuracy, three percent variable is within tolerance for urban settings.

"What, show me the logs?" Stark ordered and frowned as the last twelve hours were replayed, twelve hours he was sure had been completely blank before.

--

Kendra walked into the warehouse and blinked as the strange boy she had been assisting sat among a pile of electrical equipment while he cursed silently to himself. For a moment, the Slayer considered disappearing as she was trained to do with anyone not of the Watchers Council before ignoring the feeling. If she couldn't trust him, then she couldn't trust anyone.

"Mr. Harris?" Kendra said just before the pile of equipment erupted in a string of pops and sparks.

Cursing as the new 'Gear' components snarled their electrical fury at him, Xander reached through the jumble of wires and jerked the power cord out of its socket.

"Damn it! Who the hell thought it would be a good idea for there to be two separate standard power types?" Xander grumbled as he shook his hand trying to return some of the feeling from the jolt. "Freaking AC/DC conversion problems." He growled, before finally noticing his guest. "Kendra, you're back." Xander said with a smile as he tried to put the skittish Slayer at ease.

"What seems to be da problem, sir?" Kendra asked carefully as she tried not to anger her host.

Extracting himself, Xander dusted his hands off on his pants before shrugging at the question. "I managed to put the finishing touches on my stake launcher last night. The problem was that with the 'on the fly' fighting, combined with vampiric speeds, I needed to update my targeting system." The young man said with pride as he went into geek mode concerning his latest project.

"I was most of the way finished with that when testing proved that the Gear suits computer system was too weak to keep up with the targeting program." Xander explained before looking back at the mass of electronics he had been working on. "When I finished updating that, I found that with the microwave cannon, stake launcher, targeting computer, audio/video ports, night vision and computer systems… I had roughly six minutes worth of power in the Gear suits original power packs before everything dies on me." He looks disgusted at this point. "I've spent the rest of the morning looking for an alternate power source within my tech range; unfortunately I have yet to find anything viable that doesn't revolve solely around the lots and lots of extension cords, plan."

Kendra watched as the young man sighed and sunk back into thought before her attention was drawn to a blinking red light on one of the consoles. "Sir, what does dat mean?"

Blinking at the dark skinned slayer, Xander followed her gaze before screaming a curse.

He was late for school again.

--

Alice Case filed her last report before closing the laptop and checking around her room once more. The night before had been a close call, far too close for her to ignore, so she was leaving Sunnydale on the first available flight out.

Picking up the small envelope, she considered once more the words she had written for the armored vigilante she had been pursuing before setting the document on the bed.

She knew he checked on her from time to time and she hoped he would read the letter before the two weeks she had paid for the room was up.

Picking up her luggage, the reporter walked towards the door.

As her hand touched the handle she froze when a knock came from the other side. Looking through the peephole, Alice frowned before opening the door slightly and speaking to the man there, "Yes?"

"Pardon me, are you Miss Alice Case?" the well dressed young man asked and grinned as she nodded. "Good, this makes my job much easier." He said before reaching inside his coat.

Tensing, Alice was preparing to slam the door and run when the man pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket.

"Sign here, please?"

Blinking, Alice opened the door completely, checking both directions in the hall for possible ambush and looking back at the plane ticket the young man was holding out to her. "What?"

--

(A/N) Well that's that… I considered leaving him going into his jacket and ending the chapter there, but decided that too many cliffhangers could spoil the moment. (And that, children, is how five seconds can be the difference between suspense and humor.)

P.S. Wow, almost eight thousand words on this little 'One Shot' fic I started… guess the muse likes this one. (Hope everyone else does.)

-Tjin


	8. Iron Gear 8

Xander Harris sat at his desk and tried to ignore the senseless droning of the teacher as she talked about the nineteenth king of France, something that had no bearing whatsoever on the world other than to complicate the lives of students the world over.

As he ignored her, Xander jotted down ideas to solve the problem he had run into earlier. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the words he had written.

Fission. Nuclear power was an option, its pros and cons where well known and on the plus side any containment failure would only result in the irradiation of a small portion of California with the city of Sunnydale decimated by the explosion. A soap bubble pop compared to the next option.

Fusion. A small sun contained in a battery. Fusion energy was as plentiful as hydrogen, the downside, of course, arose from the pretty light show. A light show only seen by alien star gazers as they tried to figure out how this rather boring star system suddenly became a binary system.

Scratching that one out, Xander looked at the next listed item.

Cold Fusion. The holy grail of all energies, the creation of fusion without the heat that consumes the fuel, it's a self perpetuating energy source. Of course the downside is the fact the containment system would only just barely fit… On Rhode Island.

Anything smaller and the containment field would fail, creating an electromagnetic pulse that would kill any technology more advance then a yo-yo.

Scratching that one off the list, Xander slowly looked down at the last words written on his 'normal energy' list and felt a chill run up his spine at actually considering it.

Zero point energy. The capturing of a micro black hole is considered by every single scientist that could figure out the equations to be a i very bad idea. /i And gods help the universe if anyone ever tried to use one as a weapon.

Using zero point weapons is like playing Russian Roulette with a nuke, the stakes are just … higher.

The idea behind a zero point weapon is enough to make any general salivate in anticipation. Create a black hole on your enemies lands and it will suck everything within a millionth of a light second into itself before it collapses.

That's when the down side starts around the world as the chaos of the weather, tides, air currents and what have you are all affected. The planet tries to compensate for the massive gravity that was exerted on it, the earth quakes and tsunamis form as the tectonic plates shift.

And more and more and more.

With all of the advantages of such a weapon, it could outweigh the problems, except for when the researchers calculated the odds of the weapon gaining self supporting status. One in fifty.

One in fifty odds, at best, that the black hole would gain enough mass to support itself and not simply collapse. It would suck the Earth in, for starters, then Mars and Venus, the rest of the planets and even the sun would be eaten by the ever ravenous monstrosity.

The odds of that happening when only used as energy are considerably better, one in five hundred or so, but like I said, Russian Roulette.

Scratching that one out, Xander looked back at the first option before crumpling the entire list up as the bell rang for the end of the day.

Its not that he couldn't get the fissionable material, it's just rather hard to keep it. Governments take a rather dim view of their civilians walking around with nukes.

Standing, Xander headed towards his friends as he tried to figure out how he could tell them he had found another slayer.

--

Moving back towards his warehouse, Xander tried to figure out logically why he hadn't told the others about Kendra.

One, Ford was there and two, I don't trust Ford.

Stopping in shock at the simple logic, Xander started trying to figure out his power supply problem again. He would deal with Ford when the boy became a prob…

"Xander?"

With a start, Xander spun and tried to get his heartbeat back under control as his best friend walked up to him.

"Willow… What a surprise, seeing you here because you umm… why are you following me?" Xander asked as he tried to get a grip on the situation.

Stepping up to him, the redhead pulled a sheet of paper out of her books carefully. "You dropped this back at school." She said as she handed over a piece of paper covered in the equations and brain storming ideas he had been writing down for possible use on the gear suit.

"Ummm… well you… how much trouble am I in right now?" Xander asked as his best friend ground her teeth in frustration. "Yeah, alright here's the truth, Halloween night everyone got turned into their costumes…"

Yep, lots of explaining… and he still didn't know how to tell her about Kendra.

--

"So that's what I've been doing." Xander said as he saw the hurt in his friend's eyes at his lack of trust.

"Why didn't you tell me?" the only child of the Rosenbergs asked as she and Xander sat on the park bench they had moved their conversation to.

"You and Buffy seemed happy that I was staying out of the slaying, so I just… never brought it up."

He was sure she was about to tear into him when a light dawned in her eyes as she realized something.

"Oh wait, so that's why Iron Man was here last night."

Xander felt his stomach turn into a tight ball of cold acid at the words Willow muttered more to herself than to him. "What?"

Yeah, his day was turning out great.

--

Alice Case sat down in her seat as the airplane started warming up its engines for take off. Pulling open the folder, she started preparing for her next assignment.

Westchester, New York. Xavier's School for Gifted Children.

--

(A/N) Well that's that. Hope you all enjoy it and give me lots of luverly reviews.

-Tjin.


	9. Iron Gear 9

**Chapter 9**

Xander walked into school the next day and stopped at the sight of Ford and Buffy talking.

Walking up, Xander repressed the urge to punch the vampire worshiping jerk.

"I sort of had an idea. It's a... It's a secret. I kinda wanna surprise you." Ford said as Xander got within hearing range.

"I like surprises." Buffy said halfway sincerely.

"Really? Cause you know I don't." Xander countered as he finally broke into the conversation and stepped up next to Buffy.

After a moment of glaring at the intruder, Ford finally smiled tightly at the other teen and turned back to Buffy. "So I'll see you there, Nine-ish?"

"Sure," Buffy responded as she stared at Xander in confusion.

"Great," Ford said as he turned around to walk away. "It's gonna be fun."

"Somehow I doubt that." Xander muttered to himself as he glared at the retreating teen before turning towards Buffy with a smile. "So Buffy, party at the deathtrap tonight, I hear."

Smiling slightly, Buffy turned to walk down the hall with Xander pacing her. "Yeah, I hear people are just dying to get in."

--

Xander was angry, even after the knowledge that the whole thing was a trap, Buffy had still insisted on going to the club by herself.

Growling to himself, Xander headed inside.

He needed his armor.

--

Drusilla was worried, Spike had made a deal with the little Judas boy to betray the Slayer. The stars sang that the Judas child was right, but Miss Edith was worried, she whispered warnings about the Tin Man.

Sitting in the darkness of her room, Dru rocked back and forth with the small doll as she wondered what she should do.

In all her years the stars had always been right, but they had forgotten to tell her things and that had gotten the insane vampire in trouble, like the time in Peru, but Miss Edith had always given good advice and Dru was concerned about ignoring the small voice.

"Dru love, it's time." Spike said happily as he imagined his lover back to her old self.

"Spike, I'm scared. Miss Edith says the Tin Man is going to be angry if we go after the Slayer tonight." Drusilla whispered as she continued to rock herself slightly.

"Don't worry love, I've talked to the Wizard and straightened it all out, everything's going to be fine." Spike said soothingly as he tried to get his unbalanced sire moving.

With a snarl, Drusilla's hand lashed out and caught her favorite child in the face.

Jerking back, Spike felt his face where the four long scratches lay across his cheek, pulling back his hand he stared at the blood in confusion for a second before growling. He shifted into his full demonic face and the shallow cuts healed. Turning to his lover, Spike considered forcing the vampiress to come with him before shrugging it off, "Fine then, I'll bring you back something sweet to eat, love." Spike growled before leaving the warehouse.

Staring after the younger vampire, Dru started to whimper at the thought of being truly alone.

--

Xander moved as quickly as he could towards the vampire wannabe club as he prayed he was quick enough to save his friend.

Willow and he had managed to enhance the battery system slightly but in the end Xander had forgone most of his more advanced equipment and had settled on his microwave cannon and two or three of the more self contained weapons systems.

Ignoring the clanking of the axe he had strapped on, Xander stumbled slightly as the dark skinned Slayer stepped out of an alley way in front of him.

"Kendra, what are you doing here?" Xander asked as he tried to ignore the memory of the rant Willow had given him at the discovery of 'that' little secret.

Xander flinched as he remembered he had meant to tell Giles about her while at school today.

"You are going after de vampires?" Kendra asked and took his silence as confirmation. "Den it is me job to help you, sir."

"Kendra, you don't understand I…" Xander trailed off, he really didn't want to deal with this without Giles there to help. Sighing, Xander rubbed at the sweat on his head and winced when his armored gauntlet hit the helmet. "Great, okay the friend I'm going to save, her name's Buffy and she's the… A vampire Slayer, she died last year and I revived her with CPR, she's walking into a trap right now and I have to save her." Xander blurted out and waited for Kendra's response.

After a momentary pause, the Jamaican Slayer took a breath and looked at the armored man that had helped her. "She is in trouble from vampires?" She asked and nodded when he confirmed it. "Den everything else be secondary, let's go."

"Alright, but… do you have something to cover your face with?" Xander asked and explained at her quizzical look. "Nobody else knows you're here, if you cover your face we can have at least a tiny bit of time to resolve everything before you become a target."

That problem was resolved by adding a scarf tied around the face to a hooded shirt concealing the young Slayer's features.

With a curse at the time wasted, Xander and Kendra headed for the club.

--

Xander frowns as he gets to the Sunset Club and stares at the open metal door. "Great, looks like the party has started without us, Kendra. When we get in there, Buffy is the short blond. Watch out for Spike, he has peroxide white hair, a leather jacket and he's killed two slayers, so if you see him, tell me and I'll deal with him."

Saying a silent prayer to anyone that was listening for his friend's safety, Xander rushed towards the door.

Moving down the stairs, Xander took in the sight of Buffy pressed into a corner as she tried to protect as many of the idiots as she could behind her.

Stepping forward, Xander grabbed a vampire around the throat and simply flung the undead creature off the balcony. Taking a moment, he set the targeting crosshairs over the falling leech and pressed the firing stud.

With a popping crack, the vampire disintegrated and showered the occupants below with dust.

In the silence that settled, Xander pointed his cannon at Spike. "Let them go or no one gets out of here alive."

--

(A/N) Wow, you have no idea how hard it is to write this part out without using Dru as a hostage.

Anyway that's that chapter down, hope you all enjoyed it.

And WAHOO! The first 10k words on this little 'One Shot' hope you all enjoy.

-Tjin.


	10. Iron Gear 10

Staring through the crosshairs at the leather clad vampire, Xander resisted the urge to burn the leech down on general principles.

"Who the bloody hell are you mate?" Spike asked as he took a step back from the cornered slayer.

"You must not watch too much television, I'm called Gear," Xander said simply as he tried to keep an eye on all the vampires within the room.

Looking the armored form over, Spike made the connection Drusilla had been warning him about. "So you must be the Tin Man my Dru's been ramblin about," Spike said as he shifted to put one of his minions between himself and the armored man above. "Have to admit mate, I was expectin' someone bigger."

"I'm big enough for this job and that's as big as I need to be."

Spike cursed the emotionless faceplate that kept him from reading the man. "You really think you can save all of them?" Spike asked as he motioned around the crowded room of vampires and victims. "Your only one man after all."

Glancing down Xander froze at the pleading stares of those below him before looking back at Spike and powering up the cannon.

"I didn't come here to save them."

--

Willow chewed on the end of her thumb as she looked over the calculations Xander had written up before making a slight change to one of his equations and staring at the results.

Picking up the paper, Willow walked over to the blackboard Xander had set up and rewrote the equation before staring at the final answer.

Taking a deep breath, she wondered why it was never easy. Walking back to the table, Willow wrote a quick note and headed towards the door. She needed to see an old boyfriend.

--

Kendra adjusted the goggles the Iron Knight… Xander, had given her as she resisted the urge to jump into the fight; she was a slayer, not some mindless berserker controlled by conflict lust. Besides, Xander had a plan.

--

Spike felt a chill run up his spine before the white hats words caught up with him. "Good one mate, almost had me goin' there for a second," Spike said with a smile. "But if you wanted me to believe that, you shouldn't have started out by demanding we let them go."

"True, but I needed a few seconds to prepare after all."

Spike realized something was up as one of the less intelligent minions fell perfectly into the verbal trap.

"Prepare for what?"

The answer came in a flash as a small CO2 canister fired its payload into the middle of the gathered vampire worshippers, vampires and slayer.

Spike managed to get his eyes partially closed when the ball exploded filling the small room with burning orange capsaicin.

In moments the screams of shocked pain from the gathered humans were quickly drowned out by the frantic wailing of the gathered vampires as there sensitive eyes and noses were overwhelmed by the chemical agent.

Spike screamed in pain and rage when shifting to his game face brought new pain as the heightened senses increased the burning from the pepper spray.

Xander cursed under the helmet as Spike dropped to his knees and disappeared from sight beneath the stumbling mass of bodies below.

Making a mental note to fry the leech first next time, Xander dropped the crosshairs over another vampire and squeezed the trigger and with a crackling pop the odds dropped by one opponent.

A shift of movement drew his attention to the side for a second as Kendra launched herself out over the crowd with the grace only a slayer could posses.

Pausing a moment to lock up another vampire, Xander smirked as another opponent dusted.

Looking around for Spike, Xander jerked the battleaxe free of its holster and chopped into a vampire that had blundered up the stairs before doing a recount.

Kendra was dealing with the last two visible vampires. The idiot vampire wannabes were curled up on the floor holding their eyes and Buffy… Freezing as a cold chill touched his spine, Xander turned and cursed as the snarling Spike blinked through the pain while he held the unconscious Buffy Summers around the throat.

Working through the pain, Spike forced himself back into his human guise and sighed as the nearly overwhelming pain lessened considerably and with a final snarl he looked up at the armored form above him. "Well, let's see mate. Nice entrance, Good pre-battle banter, high scores for the gadget and actually bringing reinforcements, but you failed to cover all your bases, and it looks like I just stole 'home' doesn't it?." Spike said as he lifted the slayer as a shield against the armor's weapons. "It's getting' a bit stuffy in here; let's say we take this outside for a spell?"

"I'd really rather not," Xander said as he tried to get a lock on the Vampire and cursed as Buffy was moved to block him. Considering his options, Xander finally started to back out of the underground area.

Spike watched as the armored form moved backwards up the stairs before turning his glare on the reinforcement and cursing in his head. Whoever she was, she showed no interest in preceding him up the stairs. And from what little he had seen of her fighting skills he could tell that she was at least an equal to the blonde he held now. No way was he turning his back on her.

Keeping his back to the wall, Spike circled the room slowly as he made his way to the stairs.

--

Giles sat quietly in his apartment as he stared, torn between the two objects on the table.

The first was a syringe filled with a thick yellow fluid, specially designed by the mystics within the Watchers Council to strip a Slayer of her powers.

The second was a shot glass filled with a nearly as thick clear fluid, it was designed by the mystics in a small eastern European brewery and was designed to strip a human of his mental capacity.

With a sigh, Giles finally picked up the shot glass and slowly poured it back into the non-descript bottle it had come from before capping the bottle and returning it to its shelf.

Giving one final glance at the syringe, Giles left it on the table as he turned back to the books. He knew there was an answer in there somewhere.

--

Xander cursed as his situation continued to degrade. Buffy was unconscious, Spike was out in the open, Kendra was locked down in the sunset club and Xander was rapidly running out of power. "Let her go, Spike." Xander tried, but the vampire simply laughed, his vampiric healing having worked the pepper spray out of his eyes already.

"Don't think so mate, looks to me like I'm winning."

"Not really," Xander countered as he shifted the microwave cannon slightly to make sure he had Spike's attention. "I'm not going to let you leave with her and you can't drop her and run, we're at a standoff and one with a definite time limit," Xander said before the situation clicked within his mind. "You're betting on a vampire or a demon of some sort to come by aren't you?"

"And you're betting you can hold me until the sun comes up," Spike shot back at him. He was mildly surprised as the armored form chuckled.

"No, the suns too far off, no way I can hold you for the next eight hours… I was actually betting on her."

Spike blinked before a crushing pain in his knee was a signal that the unconscious slayer… wasn't.

Screaming in pain, Spike shoved the slayer towards the armored form before falling back on the age old tactic of 'running away like a little sissy girl'

It was a tactic that served him well as there was only a single snapping 'Pop' before spike was gone, leaving behind a half slagged trashcan to attest to the near miss.

Glaring after the vampire, Xander turned to look at the smoking remains of the cannon. With a tired sigh at the thought of the work required to build another one, Xander knelt to check the again unconscious Buffy before retreating down the steps and freeing those trapped within the club.

As he pushed the heavy door open, Xander blinked as he was greeted by a curled fist as it crashed into his helmet.

--

(A/N) YAY! Plot bunnies have returned


	11. Iron Gear 11

(A/N) Thought I would update this one today 'Not sure why' but I do hope you all enjoy it.

--

Xander blinked as the fist collided with his mask and the owner of the appendage screamed as he held his broken hand. Staring down at the injured vampire wanna-be, Xander frowned before looking around in confusion for the new slayer.

His frown was replaced by a look of rage as he finally noticed the dark skinned girl lying at the bottom of the stairs.

Spinning on the one time friend of Buffy Summers, Xander jerked Ford off the floor and slammed him into a wall, "What did you do to her?"

--

Billy Fordham groaned as he hit the cement wall, his hand currently matched his head in the amount of pain it was transmitting and blinking away the spots that dominated his vision, he stared into the emotionless mask of the one responsible for ruining his perfect plan to ascend.

His internal musing of anger was interrupted as the armored man slammed him into the wall a second time.

"What did you do to her?" the distorted voice demanded again.

"I-" Billy stopped as a wave of vertigo from so many quick movements overwhelmed him for a moment, "I hit her with the pipe," The Los Angeles native said proudly before worry set in when the massive armored hand pulled itself back and curled into a fist.

"No."

Ford blinked in shock at the quiet voice before looking over the armored shoulder at the dark skinned girl he had hit, standing unsteadily on the stairs.

"Please sir, he just be scared o' death," She said before taking an unsteady step up, resting most of her weight on the railing.

For a moment, Ford thought the armored form would refuse and simply splatter him like a bug, then the moment passed and he was thrown to the floor with a flick of the armored hand.

Billy Fordham's last sight was of the armored form moving to help the girl before the events of the day overloaded his damaged mind, sending the young man into blissful unconsciousness.

--

Kendra felt the world slip sideways for a moment before strong arms picked her up off the hard stairs and for a moment the young Slayer wondered how metal arms could be so much more comfortable than metal stairs before her concussion shaken mind simply shrugged it off. At least she was safe now.

--

Willow looked around the dark warehouse in fear as the memories of her time here loomed in her mind's eye.

Taking a deep breath, she let the emotions flow away before walking over to the massive heap that lay on the concrete floor.

"Hello Malcolm. I know your real name, but…" she trailed off as the robotic heap just lay there. "I saw some of your design, I know you managed a bio-fusion energy of some sort and I- I need it," She said before reaching down towards the monster that had come so close to killing her.

--

Xander walked slowly up the steps as he tried not to jostle his cargo, he was worried about Kendra. Slayers could bounce back from a lot, but a pipe to the head before a roll down some steps could put anyone out for the count.

Getting to the top, Xander froze as he realized he had another problem, throughout it all Buffy had remained unconscious on the hard concrete sidewalk where he had left her. "Great, what the heck am I going to do with you?" He asked rhetorically as he started working on plans to get both slayers somewhere safe.

"What the hell are you doing to her?"

Xander turned in surprise as an enraged Angel rushed towards him. Taking in the situation, the young man shifted his load slightly before raising his left hand in the universal 'Stop' motion. "Hold on there, I didn't touch her, well other than grabbing her after Spike threw her at me."

Angel growled as he felt his inner demon fighting its way up, "You work with Spike," The reformed vampire snarled as he got ready to charge again.

"What? No I- oh hell," Xander cursed from behind his mask before stretching his arm out to it's full extension and with a puff of compressed air the small disk embedded in the palm of his hand launched itself towards the enraged vampire. With a soft 'click' three sharp legs pop out of the body before plunging into the undead flesh. A surge of electricity later and the vampire collapsed to the ground before twitching violently as the small, self contained taser continued to shock him.

Xander resisted the urge to watch the results of yet another one of his 'less than lethal' weapons. Not because he thought it would fail, but more for the fact that he had been hit by the small device himself and wanted to be as far away from Angel as possible before the vampire managed to recover and catch him.

"God I hope I never have to use that on Buffy," He whispered before shifting Kendra to a more comfortable position and running into the gathering darkness.

--

Tony Stark growled as his systems ran into the exact same interference as it had the night before, shifting around, Tony found the small switch that shifted everything to a secondary system, while nowhere as accurate or efficient as the main systems, they were also far harder to jam.

'System detects shutdown of primary sensors, this course is not recommended,' the voice of the suit droned on before a terse order overrode the warnings. Looking the system over, Tony was pleased that the basic sensors were managing far better than the primaries.

"Looks like I'm up against some very advanced tech here," Tony whispered before launching himself into the night sky.

Below him, Tony missed the return of the young redhead that had helped him with directions the night before and due to the loss of his more sensitive sensors, the suit didn't pick up the advanced energy signature she was now carrying.

--


	12. Iron Gear 12

--

Angel snarled and twitched about in pain as the electrical current kept his muscles from responding as they should. In one small corner of his mind the vampire was surprised and impressed at the tactic the armored form had opted on, making his vampiric strength worked against him in this case.

The rest of his mind was, of course, filled with all the nasty things he intended to do once he managed to get his hands on the walking tin can.

It was forty-five seconds after the attack started that the small power cell finally died stopping the flow of electricity through his body.

Inhaling a deep gasp of unneeded air, Angel carefully rolled onto his stomach before forcing himself up to his knees. Resting there a moment, the ensouled vampire jerked the small device out of his body with a grimace when the small prongs ripped out of his flesh.

Glaring at the small piece of technology, Angel pulled his hand back to shatter the micro-tazer, and froze before following through on the impulse. While he couldn't do anything with it, there was a possibility that Giles or Willow could. Slipping the small device into his coat pocket, Angel shook off the last lingering effects of the attack before working his way to his feet and moving to check Buffy.

--

Willow stared at the system that was currently testing the power supply she had pulled out of the robotic demon that had once been her online boyfriend. She wondered how she had gone from a shy geeky computer nerd to pulling apart robot-demons to help one of her two super-hero friends fight the forces of darkness.

For a moment, Willow felt seriously out of her league; Angel was a vampire with a soul, Buffy and that new girl were Slayers, Giles was a Watcher and now even Xander had moved up from just being support guy to being the an internationally acknowledged superhero.

For a that brief moment in time Willow felt a deep sadness at being left behind before shaking the feeling off and setting her resolve face, she turned back to solving Xander's problem. If her best friend could work his way up to being a true hero, then there was nothing saying she couldn't too.

It was several hours later that Xander entered the warehouse with the injured slayer held carefully in his arms. He paused at the multitude of items hooked up to a small soda can sized generator while an exhausted redhead snored from her position slumped over the workshop table.

Setting Kendra in the Hyperchamber, Xander checked to make sure she didn't have a concussion before sealing her in and turning the system on to a general healing setting. After finishing up with her, Xander carefully pulled his armor off and set the entire thing on the charging stand.

After a quick shower to wash the sweat and grime off, he pulled on some clean clothes before he moved back to the workroom and carefully lifted the sleeping redhead off the table and lay her on the cot to sleep.

Stretching his exhausted muscles Xander slowly went about unplugging the system Willow had set up. He couldn't think of anything, save a micro Arc, unit that should have been capable of generating that much power in such a small package.

Unhooking the final system, Xander made a mental note to talk to Willow about it when she got up. He finished his day by making a few phone calls to the Rosenberg house and Sunnydale General Hospital before he collapsed into a pile of clean clothes and drifted off to sleep.

--

"Hey Mike, this the one?"

The Older man turned to look over at his partner before focusing on the teen lying on the floor. After a quick check on the kid's information and the reports they had received, Mike nodded, "Yeah that's him, Billy Fordham, runaway. Says here he's terminal and suicidal," Mike said sadly before pulling the gurney over to him, "Better strap him down so he doesn't try to hurt himself, we'll make him as comfortable as possible until the end."

With a tired sigh, the two workers for the Sunnydale Mental Ward carefully loaded the disturbed teen into the medical transport. It was always sad to see one so young in this situation.

--

Spike stumbled into the warehouse. He had been careful to backtrack and change directions several times in case the armored Knight decided to pursue him. With a curse at the interfering tinker-toy, Spike looked up as his sire slowly walked out of the back room and braced herself against the wall.

"Did the nasty Tin Man spoil my tea party?" she asked slowly as she tried to calm the screaming voices in her head.

Looking at her for a moment, Spike smiled as his sire proved yet again that even crazy it was always a good idea to listen her. "Yeah love, met the Tin Man tonight and you were right as always," the blonde Vampire said as he moved up to help the weakened master vampire back to her room. "Didn't even get to taste the slayer and there were no crumpets at all, you would have hated it," he said as the vampire leaned her head against his shoulder.

"The Tin Man has taken the Slayer under his shield now and he's going to protect her forever and ever and make us dance in the nasty sunlight," she whispered before looking up at her favorite creation. "I don't wanna play with the Tin Man, Spike. He's going to take away all our toys and leave me all alone," the insane vampire said before lying down on the large bed Spike had stolen for them when they first got to Sunnydale.

Considering things, Spike looked at her for a moment, "Dru love, how do you feel about a trip to Canada?" Spike asked and smiled at his sire's look. "I hear they have entire months with no sunlight," he explained as Drusilla nodded tiredly.

She wanted away from this town as fast as possible; she just hoped the mean badger man didn't get them, not that she was going to bring that up with Spike right now, he wasn't entirely right in the head.

"Spike, what's a Wolverine?" she asked as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

--

(A/N) So, that's the end of the 'Lie to me' ep, Billy will have one more appearance, but not for several more chapters.

Hope you all enjoy and give lots of luverly reviews.


	13. Iron Gear 13

Kendra blinked as the world slowly came back into focus, she was lying in a comfortable box with a strange humming sound surrounding her. After a moment's pause to calm the spike of intense fear, the Jamaican slayer pushed against the ceiling of the box and sighed when it easily opened at her touch.

Quickly getting out of the not a coffin-like box, Kendra took a second to calm her racing heart before looking around at the massive building the Iron Knight had shown her. She finally spotted the young man where he sat at a computer screen arguing with the redhead she had met the day before. Ignoring the slight growling her stomach made in request for food, Kendra headed towards the duo.

"I'm telling you it will work, the energy source you managed to acquire allows for precise energy flow throughout the system," Xander said while Willow shook her head and pointed at the screen.

"I know that Xander, but while the energy field is better the magnetic fields you're asking for are impossible for that level of control within the set environment," She complained before noticing the approaching slayer.

"Ooh, Kendra, right?" Willow asked and smiled as the dark skinned girl nodded. "I hope we didn't wake you up. Xander said you needed to rest and then we got kind of distracted by him claiming impossible theories about new armor and magnetic fields and such so we've been arguing about that and completely lost track of time," Willow explained hurriedly as she checked her watch and realized the entire Saturday morning was gone.

Snickering at his oldest friend's rant, Xander spun around in the chair and smiled at the young slayer. "Hey Kendra, Willow and I lost track of time, you hungry?" he asked as he tried to remember what was edible in the place. "We have a fine selection of Pop Tarts, toast, and waffles," he offered as Willow brightened considerably.

"You have waffles?" Willow asked and bolted for the kitchen area at Xander's nod.

Watching her go, he chuckled before turning back to his guest "Willow recommends the waffles, but you may need to fight her for them," he said as the slayer tried not to laugh.

"I'm fine sir, I-" She was cut off as her stomach growled in protest.

"Well it looks like you're out voted today, if you don't like anything I have here, I have a few bucks I can spend at the Burger Barn for you," Xander offered as he led the protesting Slayer towards the cooking area where Willow was intently watching the toaster for her waffles to be ready.

--

Kendra stared at the small mountain of food Xander had set in front of her and tried not to blush as he urged her to eat. Cutting up a waffle, Kendra cleared her throat before looking at the other two at the small table, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what were you arguing about earlier?" Kendra asked carefully before starting in on her food.

Smiling, Xander set his own food aside and leaned forward before Willow could, "Well, the original Idea was to find a new type of metal for my armor. The steel plate has been affective so far, but the inherent flaws in that design have been glaringly obvious since I first put it together," Xander explained before continuing, "The problem is that steel is, simply enough, the best compromise between strength and availability I've had to work with until Willow here, best friend that she is, brought me that new power supply. In doing so, I'm now able to fabricate better armor through magnetic compression and electronic bonding," he said before looking at the slayer "You with me so far?" he asked as she swallowed and nodded.

"You were looking for better armor and the new power supply should let you do that. Right, sir?" Kendra asked as Xander smiled.

"Pretty much, now the idea was to use a composite of different materials to make the armor stronger and lighter. The main battle tanks for most countries use multiple paper thin layers of metal and ceramic to make their armor; my idea was to capture monofilament strands of each metal, ceramic and plastic and then 'weave' them together and layer the weave patterns one over the other until I get what I need," he said and glared at the disbelieving snort from Willow.

Kendra looked at the two for a moment before nodding, "You want to make chainmail instead of plate," She said as Xander nodded at the simplification of his plan.

"Exactly! Using magnetic fields, I can weave the different elements together and then fuse them to each other." Xander nodded happily as at least one person understood his plan.

Willow, for her part, had finally listened long enough as she launched into a rant on the flaws of his plan.

Kendra simply finished eating as she tried in vain to keep up with the conversation.

--

Tony Stark rubbed his eyes as he walked out into the bright California sunlight, he had another two days before he absolutely had to return to L.A. and he had yet to catch so much as a glimpse of the armored vigilante the small town had produced.

With a sigh, the Man behind the Iron leaned against the side of the warehouse and tried to work through the puzzle he'd found.

He didn't know what he was going to do when he found the armor; it definitely had elements that could be considered Iron Tech, but then again it could simply be based off a Cylon and end up looking about the same.

Running his hand through his hair, Tony walked down the street towards the center of the small town.

He needed to think.

--

Angel thoughtfully stared at the small device that had crippled him the night before; the electrical current had been effective in incapacitating him and it was something he didn't want to experience a second time.

He was confused as to why the armored form hadn't pressed the attack, instead of simply abducting a girl from the club he had attacked and fleeing.

In the dark apartment, Angel started to work on a plan to beat the guy.

--

(A/N) Sorry it took so long, I am still trying to write this.

Hope you all enjoy it.

-Tjin


	14. Iron Gear 14

*Click* Test one, Prototype cold plasma shield, Rosenberg Harris theory of electromagnetic waves being forced through a plasma field, we are testing to see if this is a viable method of defense against more advanced electron, repulsor and laser attacks, for this test we are using a standard vacuum setting, further tests to contain the plasma field in a standard environment to commence after this. Test one commencing. *Click* Xander set his tape down and nodded at the other two members of the little research project, Willow was currently watching the plasma field while Kendra was in charge of weapons, Xander's part was the Electromagnetic waves, they needed the waves to merge at the point of impact to try and disperse the attack.

Looking down Xander flipped the switch and started the test.

--

Tony Stark was a very knowledgeable man, he knew how to play the market, he knew how advanced systems were put together and thanks to experience he knew the difference between an intentional and accidental explosion.

So when the roof of the warehouse across from his disappeared in a flash of light and a roar of thunder the business man blinked before running back into his building for his armor.

"What's wrong with this town?"He mumbled to himself as he hurried into his suit.

--

Xander coughed and tried to ignore the heat and debris around him as he blinked the spots from his eyes, "Willow, Kendra! You both okay?" he shouted over the ringing in his ears.

He really hoped they were as he stumbled through the wreckage of the warehouse towards their location, he thought back to the last moments before the explosion, the computer had screeched something about the magnetic fields colliding before the world had disappeared in a flash of light and heat.

Making a mental note to check the area for radiation, he finally made it to the area he had last seen Kendra in mid tackle of an immensely surprised Willow just before the boom. Shifting the debris around he let out a shuddering breath of relief as a choking redhead pushed herself up from behind a pile of rubble and blinked at the destruction that surrounded her.

"T-that wasn't supposed to happen," She said in a daze before looking at Xander "Was it?"

"No, that was most definitely NOT what I was expecting." Xander said as he shook off the ringing in his ears and looks around carefully "Umm… Willow, Where's Kendra?"

--

In Boston Massachusetts a young Girl blinked at the older man that she had just thrown through a wall.

Ignoring her mother's screams Faith grabbed her clothes and fled the house.

--

Ironman used his repulsors to slowly drift through the hole in the warehouse he had been living next to for the last two weeks. Landing carefully he looked around the demolished laboratory carefully. "Jeez, what hit this place," he muttered to himself as he stared at the wreckage.

"Well, as it turns out, it was the equivalent of a lukewarm solar flare," Spinning towards the voice Tony blinked at the metal form before him as it lumbered out of the shadows.

"Solar Flare?" Stark asked as he noticed the cannon strapped to the man's shoulder track his movements.

"Yeah, funny thing about plasma… it's a temperamental little shit to work with." Iron Gear said as he watched the invincible Iron Man carefully.

"Figured that out on your own, or did you have help?" Tony mocked and frowned behind his mask as the form seemed to stiffen.

Glaring through the mask Xander resisted the urge to lash out at the reminder of his loss, he knew he couldn't take the legendary Iron Man in a fight, instead he simply sighed and slowly removed his helmet, "I had help Tony, and now one of them is gone."

Blinking at the shattered look on the young man's face Tony Stark powered down his repulsor beams. "What the hell is going on here kid," he asked.

"It all started several weeks ago during Halloween," Xander explained carefully, it was going to be a long conversation.

--

Angel stared at the modified motocross armor he had been working on, designed to protect humans from a critical crash, it worked very well against blunt force trauma. The extra metal plates attached to it would assure some protection from the taser system that had been used against him a few nights ago, as well as the more normal (for him at least) wooden stakes, combined with his trademark jacket he should have a viable defense for the next time he faced the metal man.

--

Quentin Travers grinned as the report crossed his desk, the slayer spirit had transferred to a new host just minutes ago. Dropping the report in the trash, the Watcher leaned back in his chair happily, "Finally the Bitch got what she deserved," he muttered as he tried to ignore the pain from his shattered kneecap.

He still couldn't believe a slayer had actually raised a hand against him, it wasn't like the vampire he had asked her to capture was going to be used for her Crucimantium, what should she care about that Summers whore.

--

In the mid Atlantic aboard the SHIELD Heli-carrier Colonel Nick Fury growled as he read the transcript from a bug planted in a London based Antique Collectors Guild.

In the silence of his own office the Colonel made a mental note to destroy Quentin Travers.

--

In a sunny field beneath a green sun a nearly insane Winifred "Fred" Burkle stared as a swirling portal spat out an unconscious Kendra at her feet, looking around for any sign of the monsters that seemed to live in this strange world she had discovered, Fred carefully started to collect sticks to form a sled, she calculated she would need twenty seven three foot sticks to support the young girl long enough to get her back to the cave, or twenty five foot sticks or…

With calculations running through her head the Texas born genius tried to save the dark skinned girl from the fate of all humans that were captured here.

--


	15. Iron Gear 15

Tony Stark let the young man ramble on for several hours; he knew the pain of loss and the need to find a distraction.

"So the Bio-Fusion generator feeds through the Amp reactor, creating a sustainable energy source of five hundred million Megawatts with a peak use of one Gigawatt for combat use, but the cell would be depleted in a manner of minutes," Xander explained as he went over his suit's capabilities with the man responsible for it. "Primary weapon is an externally mounted Microwave cannon. The suit has been designed with a number of hard points for rapid weapons load out, depending on the mission objective."

Tony nodded at that, it made sense to use external weapons for versatility. Fortunately for him he had managed to find a powerful weapon that worked in most cases, and for everything else… there was War Machine. "How do you get around?" he asked as he noticed a lack of jet intakes on the armor.

"Mostly, I run." Xander admitted before shrugging at the older man "What? I was going to install a set of motorized roller-skates, but then I decided that would just look stupid." Xander said as the tech guru puffed up in wounded pride.

"I'll have you know those were cutting edge for their time," Tony defended before submitting under Xander's ridiculing stare. "Okay so they were stupid looking and hard as hell to use on anything other than a straight path thanks to a lack of traction… but they were still cutting edge."

Shrugging his shoulders, Xander turned back to the suit. "They say that if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid," He admitted before looking back at the man. "But then those didn't really work." He finished with a smirk before moving on. "Over here we have the hard point loads and prototype weapons systems," he announced.

Tony glared for a moment before following on with the tour. Looking around, he finally pointed to a collection of items sitting on a bright red shelving unit, "What are those?"

Xander looked at them and actually growled.

"Those are failed prototypes, the math seems to work out on them, but the actual results don't match up with the designs." He admitted before noticing the curious look and moving over to the shelves and picking up a device about the size of a soda can. "For example, this was the kraken, an enhanced capture system, using enhanced electromagnetic memory metals it would hit an object, deploy the webs and then only the metal on the ends would be attracted to the electromagnets back on the unit, wrapping around the target in seconds and immobilizing them, I wanted to sell it to police and bounty hunters for detaining criminals before they got close," Xander admitted.

Tony Stark nodded, it was a solid plan, and could logically be reduced to a forty millimeter size for grenade launchers and be affective for several hundred yards. "Why is it over here?" he asked.

Xander sighed and took the device over to a mannequin. "This is why," he growled before pushing the button and throwing it at the test dummy.

In moments the can had exploded into a web of lines that effectively cocooned the target, while Tony doubted the energy cell would last long on the magnets it would give the officer between fifteen and twenty seconds to get to them before the energy ran out.

"I don't see what the…" he trailed off as a creaking sound from the mannequin was quickly followed by the dummy collapsing and being crushed into a ball. "Ahhh… That would be, problematic."

"Yeah, the memory metal continues to retract, despite the target being immobilized, crushing the target. Something I understand the police frown on," Xander admitted before turning off the device and retracting the webbing before returning it to the shelf.

"While each of these 'Work' they don't work right, so I put them up here and return to them from time to time to try and work out the bugs."

"You have a lot," Tony said as he looked at the shelf in surprise, not that it had anything on him. Stark Industries had warehouses full of failed and rejected prototypes.

Shrugging his shoulders, Xander moved on. "Yeah, I don't sleep a whole lot anymore, bad dreams." Xander sent a knowing look at the legendary Iron Man.

"Yeah, Kid, I got that." Stark thought back on some of the things he had seen in his years behind the mask, most he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. Shaking his head, he looked around the warehouse again, "So all of this is made from scrap?"

Xander nodded and answered, "Yup, hardest part was the electrical, but you can find what you need lying around; gold from computers, silver from cutlery and platinum from old car engines." Xander shrugged, "Most of us don't have a world spanning, Mega Corporation to help build our armor or toys, after all."

"Hey, my first suit was made in a cave, with tech a lot worse than this." He defended before shrugging. "After that I decided, why handicap myself."

Nodding, Xander brushed some rubble off the couch and sat down. "True, but while all of this is great I got to ask. Am I going to be facing industrial espionage charges anytime soon?"

Thanking about it for a minute, Tony finally shook his head, "Not today Kid, you didn't have anything to do with the magic, so I'll let you slide. But keep your nose clean and try to stay under the radar. Take it from me, national media popularity brings a lot of unwanted attention."

The younger man groaned, "If I had known she was a freaking reporter, I would have thought twice about saving her." Xander explained as the armored form chuckled in understanding before dropping his mask back in place.

"No you wouldn't kid, you and I both know that." he jibed before launching himself out of the hole he had entered from.

Taking a deep breath, Xander let it out in a shudder before heading to the shielded part of the warehouse. Entering the back section, Xander nodded to Willow before checking on the advanced suit.

While not as advanced as the Stark Industries model, the gap was rapidly closing.

"Good, let's start thinking about the Mark three." He said as Willow turned her mind to the task at hand, at least it kept her from thinking about Kendra.

--

From a distance, the young man stared at the hole the metallic meddler had flown out of recently. His systems had detected the explosion and he had come over to investigate, because the fact that it had drawn the attention of one of the planet's do gooders meant that this could potentially complicate matters.

Rubbing his hand over his bald head, Warren Meer's both cursed and thanked that fateful Halloween night. While he had retained the perpetual baldness his costumed character had suffered with, the increased mental capacity was well worth it.

Moving off the roof, Warren thought back to the armored form before starting plans to resurrect his character's Battle Suit. While there was no Superman in this universe to interfere, he had no doubt the locals would trouble him no end.

--

Nick Fury grinned as the reports started to cross his desk concerning the "Watchers Council." While the council claimed to be ancient, the best reports his teams could come up with was a nineteen thirties group started by a con-man by the name of James Henry Travers.

It seemed to have started off easily enough as a con to get money out of the terrified politicians looking for a way to stop the Nazi funded supernatural attacks on the British Isle and had quickly spiraled into a massive operation dealing in paranormal research, smuggling, terrorism, kidnapping and extortion. Most of the current batch probably didn't even know about its history, being fed the same crock of shit the Slayer had been.

Chewing on his cigar, Nick Fury moved towards the video screen and started connecting to the British Home Office, he was pretty sure they would find this data very interesting.

--

Angel ran through the underground carefully, adjusting straps and shifting gear as he went. Dropping into a near silent roll, the two hundred and forty year old vampire launched a trio of small balls and smiled as the powerful little magnets attached, connected and stuck the balls to metal he had placed earlier before exploding.

He had been fortunate to find a collection of hand grenades in a local nest that he had adapted to his anti-armor needs.

Nodding in satisfaction at the destruction, Angel turned his attention to his other weapons. Picking up a small canister, he held it carefully before setting it to the side because the thought of testing a thermobaric grenade underground filled him with a shudder of fear.

He would try it out later tonight, much later.

--

Winifred Burkle looked at some of the equations the unconscious girl had brought with her and frowned. While at first everything seemed right, Fred had looked a bit closer and discovered a flaw in one of the numbers and that, of course, changed everything.

Pulling out a piece of charcoal, the Texas born genius started working to fix the numbers. If she managed to get it right, it would allow the machine to place someone just outside the local phase equation, allowing them to walk through walls.

That was assuming, of course, that she got the math right.

Behind her, she failed to see the dark skinned girl sit up and carefully hold her head while looking around.

--

(A/N) A bit different then I wanted… I wanted a big argument between Iron Man and Xander, but that just didn't work out so, there ya go.


	16. Iron Gear 16

As the startled scream pierced the quiet warehouse, Xander leapt from bed in an adrenaline fueled rush and snatched up a hefty chunk of pipe to fend off whatever was attacking.

Blinking as he looked around, Xander frowned before shaking his head and staring at the only other occupant of the massive warehouse he was currently using as a home and workshop. "Willow?" He mumbled in confusion before taking another look around the warehouse "What is it? What happened?"

Looking at him like he was crazy, Willow pointed accusingly at the sixteen foot tall behemoth that had somehow managed to sneak up on her.

Blinking tiredly at the massive construct, Xander finally gave up and looked back at Willow, "I don't get it," he mumbled as Willow looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Xander Harris, there is a giant robot in your warehouse," Willow stated in outrage as Xander looked at the machine he had built.

Finally shaking his head, he looked at the robot. "Iapetus, system report," Xander mumbled as the big machine froze for a moment as its system ran a full scan before responding.

"Sys Diag Rep, No Err," it mumbled out in a garbled collection of tones.

Willow stared at it in concern before turning to Xander in confusion.

"System diagnosis reports no Errors," Xander translated as he rubbed his head in chagrin. "Something seems to be messed up in its voice drivers, I've run every test I could think of on the speakers and voice software and nothing has come up yet. I was hoping to get that done soon… ish"

Having finally run out of patience with the genius, Willow growled and grabbed Xander by the front of his shirt and pulled him around to face her. "Where. Did. It. Come. From. Xander?" she grated out as she pointed an accusatory finger at the massive machine.

Pulling away from the young redhead, Xander grinned as he smoothed the sleep worn shirt down before responding. "It is a 'Theoretical Intelligence, Tactical Assault Neo-sentient.' Or TITANs, for short," Xander explained before moving towards the machine. "And this TITAN is named Iapetus. I built him during my off time hiding from Iron Man and he just kind of… expanded from there." Xander said with a shrug as Willow rubbed her head in pain from the forthcoming headache this would likely cause.

"Xander, please explain how _this_ robot is going to be any different from the dozens of Stark Industries robots that have gone insane over the years and tried to kill everyone?" Willow asked as Xander blinked before looking back at the machine.

"I'm guessing that saying I'm really, really sure isn't going to cover it." Xander asked and flinched at his best friend's glare. "All right, how about, in all the AI's built by Stark Industries, the only two models that have maintained full Stability were the JARVIS and HOMER models. Iapetus, as well as any sibling I might make, is based off of those AI's. The only quirk, aside from its voice drivers, is its desire to refer to me as Ouranos." Xander explained as Willow blinked before nodding.

"Umm… Yeah Th-that about covers it." She said quietly before jumping as Xander smiled and pulled her towards the kitchen area.

"Great! With that settled, I made sure to pick up some waffles yesterday." Xander said before getting dragged in turn towards the kitchen by an excited redhead.

Behind him, Iapetus logged the conversation in its memory banks for further review before returning to it's personal work. Hidden in a back section of the massive warehouse, a second Titan was slowly taking form. If Iapetus's calculations were correct, Ouranos would need help in combating the demonic forces that were threatening this world and as his limited mobility and power cells kept him relatively close to the warehouse, the logical objective would be to build units that were not hampered by that limitation.

His calculations showed only a twenty two point four percent chance of a TITAN going rogue, those odds were well within the acceptable tactical parameters.

Had Xander designed him for strategic thinking, his decision would have likely been much different.

--

Warren glared at the clunky form he had cobbled together. The problem was that despite his best efforts, the thrice damned power source was giving the young genius a headache, unlike in his costume's world where the rare element known as Kryptonite seemed to cover approximately twenty percent of the planet, the Kryptonite from this world was nothing more than a shiny bauble of little use as a weapon or power source.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Warren turned to the banks of computers he had and started shifting through the internet for hints at a possible plan. He frowned at the mostly trash information he was getting before pulling up a single file from a Doctor Otto Octavius and frowned.

"Sympathetic harmonics and fusion energy," looking the calculations over, Warren's frown turned into a predatory grin. While the end result was going to be catastrophic should anyone ever attempt to build the thing, since it failed to take planetary and cosmic harmonics into account, the Idea was sound. Now if only he could get a hold of some tritium he would have a solid plan.

Turning the computers to a new search, he started scouring the world wide web for the parts he would need for the fuel source.

--

Kendra blinked as she slowly regained her focus from the dark pain of unconsciousness to the near blinding pain of consciousness. Her slayer training kicked in as she clenched her jaw around the scream that threatened to tear its way out of her throat at the pain.

Taking a moment to focus, she forced away the desire to shriek before taking in her position and putting everything together quickly. Of course, usually when she wakes up in the middle of a cave and in pain from injuries she can't remember, she is used to being tied down with an overly wordy warlock ranting above her.

Looking around, the dark skinned Slayer frowned at the short woman engrossed in her own world at the far side of the cave. If this was the warlock who had brought her here, the young woman had obviously not thought the whole process through.

Slipping off the reed pallet she found herself on, Kendra took a moment to grab a handy rock from nearby and advanced, intending to teach the young woman a lesson.

You don't kidnap the Slayer.

--

Buffy looked around the empty Library with a frown before turning towards her watcher "Giles, have you seen Willow recently?"


	17. Iron Gear 17

(Abandoned Firehouse, Sunnydale.)

Warren Meers stared at the machine with a near predatory grin. The device coming together under his hands was far bulkier than the original, yet his alter ego Lex Luthor had fallen in love with the device as soon as he had laid eyes on it. The normally whispered voice had screamed in near ecstatic glee at the sleek, deadly device and he had quickly set out to find if it was possible to build it.

Snapping the last part onto the sphere, Warren waited as the internal power cell charged before activating the black metal sphere and grinned as it slowly lifted to hover several feet above the ground. The IT-O Imperial Interrogation Droid was definitely something that Lex Luthor would have been interested in, the programming was far beyond anything the bald genius had attempted before. Of course, to simplify matters it was actually designed to be psychotic, to find the most successful manner of harming it's subjects without killing them. Drugs, Physical, Psychological, Emotional, all methods of torture were used by the droid in its attempts to break its target. It was capable of learning the different physical characteristics of its prey to maximize the pain threshold in a wide variety of 'subjects'.

Smiling to himself, Warren motioned for the robot to follow before leading it to a closed off room. Inside was a possible informant on a source of tritium, the only problem was the crazy monks that had it believed it was the only defense against some 'Beast' that they refused to name. Now while he respected their individual beliefs and practices and was even a little awed by their ability to resist his questioning, the problem was they were keeping him from achieving what he needed.

As he entered the room, Warren Meers felt a small measure of regret at what he needed to do, but if he was going to prove that humans were superior to those gathering against them, there were steps that definitely needed to be taken.

Aliens, Demons, Mutants, gods, it didn't matter who or what the threat was, Warren swore he would find a way to stop them.

Of course, it never hurt for him to make a profit while defending humanity from these coming threats, Warren decided before waving the machine forward and taking a seat nearby. Soon after Warren made a note to soundproof this section of the firehouse, it wouldn't do for someone to come by asking about the screaming.

(Junkyard – Sunnydale)

Xander ran through the obstacle course in the brand new Gear suit, it was lighter, more durable and could actually flex and bend a bit, a vast improvement over the original design that was currently sitting back at the warehouse. Dropping into a roll, the armor flexed exactly as designed and allowed him to pull off the move before he launched himself into a leap over a small wall and landed solidly on his feet again.

Smiling behind the armored mask, Xander enjoyed the relative freedom the new armor gave him before looking up into the sky. Crouching low, he leapt for the heavens as his armor activated the Jump Jets he had been testing and tweaking for the last week. While time consuming, Xander had quickly reached the same conclusion that nearly every major power and hero around had come up with, that in war, airpower was key.

Rising towards the sky, Xander made several mental notes about the lift speed and stability to work on later. He was nearly thirty feet up when the jets sputtered and died. He barely managed to bite out a curse as he plummeted back to earth.

Picking himself up off the ground, Xander dusted himself off as he checked the surrounding area for any observer before going back on his run, he was just very glad no one had seen that.

(Five Miles outside Sunnydale.)

Cordelia Chase screamed in rage as she brought the tire iron down on the demon's skull for the sixteenth time making the fallen form twitch again. It had been such a good day too; her parents had left for India on some business deal for daddy, they had apologized and promised her a new corvette if she kept her grades up while they were gone, she had managed to pay off Jonathan Levinson to make sure that happened and she had gotten a date with a totally hot college student.

That's when things had started to really go wrong.

First, Parker had taken her out to a totally lame Italian place and tried to ply her with oysters and wine, then he had gotten really grabby before kicking her out of the car when she had refused his advances, and then he had gone and gotten himself eaten in one quick bite by this snake demon thing, and he had actually had the nerve to keep the keys with him.

She had quickly decided that her options were to either kill the demon, retrieve the keys and drive herself back to town. Or walk the five miles back into Sunnydale in the rapidly approaching night, and the thought of walking five miles in her brand new Pradas was enough to tip the scales in the direction in which they currently stood.

Bringing the tire iron down again, Cordelia was pleased that the demon had stopped twitching under her impacts now and merely lay still.

Taking a deep breath Cordelia slowly pried the things mouth open and blinked at the white shoes that were currently twitching in the back of the things throat, brushing a stray lock of hair off her sweat drenched brow, Cordelia reached in and started helping the college playboy out of the demon.

(Xander's Warehouse.)

Iapetus worked diligently on his child as he wondered at the naming of himself and his father. While he had no desire to usurp Ouranos, he found it odd that his father would knowingly name him after a being that had betrayed and helped castrate his father.

Perhaps Ouranos was hinting at something.

Snapping the last component in place, the Titan construct watched as the first of his children came online. At eight feet tall, the single eyed Cyclops would serve as the first guardian of the Hellmouth, and in the coming days he would be joined by others until Ouranos was safe.

While they fed off the ambient energy of the Hellmouth itself, the weak energy signature of the sealed portal meant that they would need to stay nearly directly on top of the dimensional rift to survive.

While he felt 'sadness' at condemning his children to such an existence, he knew that his creator was a mortal, he had to sleep, to eat, to interact with others.

The Cyclops would need none of these things, they would build weapons and armor and defend the Hellmouth against all that attempted to use it.

As the first of his children left the warehouse making its way towards the sealed portal, Iapetus turned back to work.

(Rosenberg residence.)

Willow slid the gauntlet in place as she checked the notes for what seemed like the thousandth time. She had discovered that casting spells with certain metals nearby had an effect on the ease and power of her spell casting; gold, silver and platinum worked to give her a slight boast, but with a combination of aluminum and cold iron she could amplify her spells to a level unheard of before.

It had taken all of the last couple weeks of trial and error to find the right combination of metals; silver from junked jewelry and silverware, gold from old computers and palladium from a few of the older engines in the local junkyard.

She had used miniscule amounts at first until she had found the right amalgam for maximum power. With that combination she had scaled up and had first tried a necklace only to find that while it would increase her personal powers greatly, it was next to useless as anything other than wide area affect spells as there was no way to focus the energy.

Next she had stolen a page from the Llord of the Rings books and tried to work it into a ring, this had proven much better but had the drawback of only being useful for direct 'ray' attacks.

As she had outright refused to even consider a wand, she had searched through Giles' books for an answer, while belts, shoes, crowns and even contact lenses had been considered and rejected before she had found mention of a Glove of Myhnegon. Reading over the description, she had discovered that while the glove itself was a very dark artifact, the idea behind it was sound and with a full range of hand motions it would allow the wearer to access a nearly full range of spells and powers.

Thus she had set off, commandeered one of Xander's gloves and went to work on duplicating the design while adding some additions of her own in the form of protection runes and sigils within the glove itself to protect the wearer from any possible backlash.

Now, while Xander was out testing his new armor, Willow had decided to try her own. Intellectually, she knew that testing something like this alone was both dangerous and stupid, yet she could not help but think that anyone she told would likely try to stop her.

Reaching her hand out towards the pencil, Willow let a small trickle of magic flow into her hand and silently willed it to rise.

In a flash every single thing not bolted to the floor had shot into the air to hang suspended near the ceiling, surprised Willow almost let the spell drop before she caught herself and willed everything back down. She really didn't want to explain to her parent why everything in her room was broken. As the bed, desk and table all returned to their rightful places, Willow took a deep breath before squealing in glee at how well that worked. Her joy was quickly washed away as the backlash of such a powerful spell hit, exhausting the young witch.

Taking off the gauntlet, Willow tucked it safely under her bed before lying down to sleep and she was unconscious before her head hit the pillow.

Under her bed the gauntlet slowly curled into a fist before relaxing back to its normal state.

(Los Angeles)

Angel double checked that all the armor was on right before taking an unneeded breath and kicking the reinforced door.

The assembled vampires within stared in shock as he strode through the shattered entrance and flexed his right forearm. With a snap, the foot long Polgara spike jumped from its hidden holster and locked into position.

With a roar the gathered vampires rushed him.

The Knighthood of Dusk, or Night-hood as it was more commonly known, was an ancient order of Vampire Knights, originally formed from Fallen Templar's. While armored differently from his true foe, the plate mail wearing demons would give him an idea of what he truly needed to work on in his quest to bring down the armored warrior that had attacked Buffy.

Diving into the fray, Angel started to mentally take notes for future improvements.

(Night time – Pylea)

Kendra stared over the small rise at the slaver encampment with hatred. Winifred Burkle had explained how things worked in this world and the displaced slayer had grown cold with rage. She had betrayed the Council, attacked a Watcher, fled from her guardian and ignored her duty as she fled to Sunnydale.

On arriving she had met Xander, the Iron Knight. He had shown her how to fight with newer weapons, how to survive impossible odds, how to have fun and most importantly, he had shown her how to eat a Twinkie.

And then he had been killed, blown up in a Lab accident of all things, and while she didn't know if that world still existed she knew that if she ever found evidence that the explosion that had sent her here was anything other than an accident, someone was going to die.

Slipping back down the hill, Kendra started to circle around in the darkness, her face was covered in a deathly white skull mask Fred had managed to make after several disastrous trials and errors.

Kendra smiled at the memory of Fred holding up her prize on her sixteenth attempt, covered head to toe in the hardened white clay herself. While Fred had been busy with that, the slayer had focused on the task of building an armory from scratch.

Stone, Bone and Horn had come together in a collection of knives, axes and spears. Weapons of war against the demonic hoards that controlled this world and enslaved the humans, Kendra knew that the odds of her actually succeeding in this nearly one woman war were next to impossible.

Yet she could not simply hide in a cave as the cries of the people haunted her.

Hefting her secret weapon, Kendra charged the camp and with slayer strength launched the powder filled bladder directly into the campfire.

With a thunderous bang the bladder exploded in a flash of white light, blinding and deafening the guards and sleeping demons, it also scared the chained humans but at the moment she was more concerned about the armed and extremely unhappy slavers.

The slavers stood no chance.

(Graveyard – Sunnydale.)

Joyce Summers hugged her daughter as she cried; watching the coffin slowly sink into the grave drove home some hard truths for the Summers matriarch, about how hard she had been pushing Buffy to succeed recently.

As the two somber men slowly started to shovel dirt into the grave Joyce hugged Buffy again before slowly leading her away from the small gathering of friends and family that had come to pay their final respects for one Billy 'Ford' Fordham.


	18. Iron Gear 18

Iron Gear

Warren Meers sat at the small desk he had commandeered from the recent vampiric tenants of the firehouse and went over his notes carefully. The information the Monk had finally given him was incredibly interesting, the dimensional energy of this 'Key' could possibly offer him a grand chance to change the world. His Lex Luthor persona had done quite a lot of research into the alternate reality and split dimension theory and if this could open up a portal to a higher plane of existence then the power generation would be incredible.

Lex had theorized that the energy requirement for alternate reality portals was greater than the Galactic Core Generation, more energy output than tens of thousands of stars. To open portals to alternate dimensions would take more energy than entire galaxies could produce, but to open a portal to a higher energy state, even one tier greater would require more energy than was generated at the zero point energy explosion that started the whole thing.

In other words, greater than the Big Bang itself.

To have that much energy encapsulated in a single stabilized form was, in all honesty, truly scary for the young man for the first time since his experience on Halloween.

Leaning back in his chair, Warren stared at the hovering torture ball he had created and wondered if it was truly worthwhile to go after such an energy source for his own use. He would of course be going after it anyway to keep it away from others, but he really was worried about the effects using such an energy source could have. Not the least of which was a sudden 'Bang' and the incredible heat death of the universe.

For a moment Warren had a twisted idea of shoving the 'Key' through the Hellmouth and detonating it on the other side before filing that away under plan B and moving on. While the Key would have to be protected, it was something that he was unprepared to handle at the current moment.

Next up was a Micro-Fission plant a secret government agency calling itself the 'Demon Research Initiative' had been working on. While it had promise, Warren would have to get a closer inspection before he could determine if it was of use to him or not.

(Scene Break)

Running through the street in his new armor, Xander took a moment to check the alleys for potential targets before moving on. He was halfway through a rather boring patrol when his luck changed with a sharp impact to the side of his helmet that sent him tumbling to the ground, slightly stunned.

Rolling up to his feet, Xander turned on the large yellow demon in kakhi cargo pants and a bright Hawaiian print shirt that had struck him. It then smiled as it gently rubbed its multitude of knuckles with its off hand.

"Hellfires little human, that actually hurt. What in the name of the frozen flames are you made out of?" The demon asked in a surprisingly British accent before checking its knuckles for damage.

Blinking under his helmet at the comment, Xander considered his responses before squaring off with his opponent, "Snips and snails, and puppy dog tails?"

Growling at the comment for a moment, the demon stopped with a surprised look on his face. "Actually, now that I think about that, it sounds pretty good. I might have to make that for the next family reunion," he said before reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out a spiral bound notepad and started to scribble some stuff down. "Do you think that would work better as a soup or casserole?" he asked earnestly before looking back down at the notepad. "I mean, if I go casserole, I need a base to put in it and that leads to the whole 'noodle or rice' argument, but if it's a soup I would need a good broth for it. I don't think chicken would work."

Watching him for a moment, Xander looked around for possible ambushes or at least cameras before focusing back on the demon. "Umm… Well, admittedly the casserole is more traditional for family gatherings, but I- if you throw in some mushrooms or peppers you could possibly do a stir fry," Xander offered and jumped slightly as the demon snapped and quickly scribbled down some more stuff before flipping the page and continuing. All the while it commented on ratios and portions as well as salt content interfering with the escargot preparation. Xander cleared his throat once or twice to get the demon's attention and waved when it looked up.

Blushing a slight orange color, the demon slid the book back into its pocket and refocused on the issue at hand. "Sorry about that, I get a bit excited about cooking and that really was a good idea. My name's Hugo. Do you mind telling me who you are so I can name it after you once you're dead?" Hugo asked leadingly before sighing as Xander shook his head slowly from side to side. "Figured as much and I am sorry about your upcoming demise, but your head should be enough to cover the down payment on my restaurant," Hugo explained as he moved forward far quicker than his seven foot frame would lead one to assume was possible.

Blinking, Xander dodged back before holding up his hands placatingly even as his Mike-cannon tracked the demon's movements. "Hold up there, big fella, you don't want to do that," Xander said as the demon spun and lashed out with another blow that Xander just barely managed to avoid.

Chasing after his chosen pray Hugo watched the human's movements and began to try to predict the next move his foe was going to make. "Actually, I do. While the food service industry is killer, I think I could make a real go of it," He said before launching a kick at the Iron Gear's head and smiling as the human ducked and shifted exactly as he had expected. In another couple of moves he should have the human's responses plotted completely and then he could kill him.

Skipping back to open up some room, Xander hit a button on his right hand and launched a trio of dazzlers into the demon's face before sidestepping to the right and around. "Actually I was talking about the killing me part," Xander said as he moved away from the blind swinging of the demon and prepared to kill him should diplomacy fail. Thankfully, Tony Stark was well versed in business deals with people that wanted him dead. Of course, most of those didn't happen while they were actively working towards that end, but the logic was the same. "I happen to know a couple of civic minded individuals that will help you get a loan. I actually know one particular lady that is magical with finances and the like that could probably give you some pointers on starting your own business," Xander offered and waited nervously as Hugo stopped rubbing his eyes and turned towards him with a look.

"Y-you would do that for me?"

Taking a deep breath, Xander nodded, "We need to get a contract written up and you can't be killing any humans, but if all you want is to cook, who am I to stop you?" Xander explained.

The next half hour was spent helping a teary eyed Hugo prepare a business proposal and set up for his restaurant.

(Scene Break)

Setting the last piece of the newest gear suit onto its charging platform, Xander ran his hand over the Microweave he had managed to work out and smiled sadly. He had planned to build a set for Kendra to use for patrolling and demon hunting.

While he had wanted to build some for Buffy, Xander's original plan had been to shift Buffy out of the fight until she was able to have the life she dreamed of.

Sniffing back the tears that threatened to spill out at the memory of the lost slayer, Xander turned to a secondary project and observed the growth through a set of 'commandeered' and 'enhanced' microscopes. The micro-hooks were surprisingly similar in concept to Velcro on an amazingly smaller scale. The use of such a product should itheoretically/i allow him to scale walls when attached to his hands.

Not that climbing was his intent for these little beauties. Anything that he was likely to climb up had a high probability of simply ripping loose and sending him plummeting to the ground.

No, these would be attached to his knees and eventually worked into the soles of his armored boots. The Tony Stark memories were stored with plenty of times when the ability to actually grip the ground would have been of value, nothing was quiet so embarrassing as being stronger than an opponent only to be tossed around like a rag doll due to basic physics.

Careful magnetic management of a solution of saltwater allowed him to test the basic theory of micro-crystal manipulation before dedicating considerable time and energy into the more intensive crystal forms. While he had considered Metal or even a growth vat for Bio-matter to grow his gecko-skin material, the metal had proven annoyingly uncooperative in this work, continuously attempting to grow into straight lines along the magnetic center. He had no intention of working with the basic fundamentals of life anymore than was necessary because, once again, Stark's memories were filled with madmen that had started out on much the same path.

Double checking the readouts on the Gecko Growth System, Xander turned off the microscope and moved on. Research and projects filled the massive room, from metals and material that would armor him, to weapons that could put most militaries to shame. While Stark had sworn off the creation of weapons, Xander had no such compulsion. He understood Tony's point of view, but he was unwilling to forgo any tool that would help him protect the planet from demons.

After making sure everything was in order, Xander took one final look around the warehouse before turning in for the night.

(Scene Break)

Cordelia Chase tapped her foot impatiently as she sat in the small room and glared across the table at the stereotypical mirror that took up the entire side of the room and willed anyone or thing on the other side to either combust or break out in pimples and eczema.

The trip back had not been pleasant and Parker had whined until she detoured to the hospital where the idiot had told the staff the entire thing. Rather rapidly, the staff ordered a tox screen and the police became involved and they too suspected drugs and THAT made Cordelia get pulled in for 'questioning.'

Of course, she had already been trained in the appropriate response to a situation like this; sit up, lawyer up, shut up, and pay up.

The last time Cordelia had been in a police department had been on felony speeding charges and the family attorney had had her out before the receptionist's nails had time to dry. The fact that she had been sitting in this ugly room for ithree hours/i was not a situation she was willing to tolerate.

Finally the door opened and a rather greasy man in a suit stepped in with a smile and held out his hand, "Miss Chase, due to the nature of the situation you find yourself in, Hardmen and Klaus has decided to transfer the issue to my firm. My name is Lindsey McDonald and I will represent you on behalf of Wolfram and Hart."

Three hours later, Lindsey was back on a plane headed East, having given up on the law field entirely and Wolfram and Hart were reconsidering their movements into Sunnydale.

Hardmen and Klaus were once again representing the Chase interests and the Sunnydale political scene got very interesting as Cordelia sued the City for wrongful arrest and Constitutional violations. It would be settled out of court when the Mayor bought his daughter a new car, a beach house in Malibu and a lifetime membership to the Massage House International.

Continued employment for Detective Stein was NOT part of that agreement.

(Scene Break)

Slipping on The Gauntlet, Willow felt the surge of energy as her magic responded. Taking a deep breath, she started working, building a suit of armor and magic. The magic of The Gauntlet could enhance her own power greatly, it could also store a magical construct within it spell schema, allowing her to automatically recast a spell of far great intricacy without the fussy waving and chanting that was required.

What she was currently working on was a matter of transfiguration and Alchemy that would allow her to summon a magical suit of armor for protection. While many spell casters could use magic for protection, it required either constant focus or a rather clumsy anchor and usually worked like a bubble. Anything that got within the bubble could easily bypass the magical protection. This could be fixed with a spell that would radiate out from the skin of the spell caster, but there was no way to anchor it and it took some time to cast so it was of little use in combat. With the aid of the gauntlet though, Willow would be able to summon her protection immediately.

She was also working to weave the magic into an armored suit. Too many stories had told of some small weakness that allowed an attack through to just be creative license, so she was taking a page out of Xander's book once again and doubling up the protection. It made the magic even more precise and focused and it was a small price to pay for safety while demon hunting.

Focused on the mirror as the grey and black material started to take form, Willow didn't even notice the slight whisper in the back of her mind giving her advice on the design and spell ideas to integrate into the armor itself.

(Scene Break)

Stepping out of the dust covered room, Angel made a mental note to adjust several points of protection in his design. None of the cuts or slashes were critical for him, but they were definitely distracting and he needed to be fully focused on his foe.

Taking out a small notepad, he flipped it open and made several notations for upgrading the weapons The Polgara spike had proven effective in penetration tests, but it had shattered far too easily for any defensive use. Thankfully he had managed to get a lead on an interdimensional black market dealer that supposedly had access to a dragon's essence. If he could get a hold of that, he would be immune to fire and then he could really start on some interesting ideas.

Making his way back towards Sunnydale, Angel kept thinking about the tools he would need in his crusade.

(Scene Break)

Kendra stretched as she walked out of the cave the next morning before frowning at the gathered humans she had liberated the day before. She distinctly remembered telling them to run away and following her was pretty much the opposite of running. Her frown deepened slightly as she noticed Fred handing out her special breakfast burrito to the freed slaves. The dimensionally displaced slayer shuddered at the memory of her one attempt at eating the things and wondered if she should be mad at the quirky physicist for feeding them or happy that she was running them off.

Sighing in frustration, Kendra turned back to the cave for her gear. The disappearance of the slavers from the night before would draw attention from the nearest town so she anticipated a patrol of some sort within the day.

Gathering her equipment and the weapons she had scavenged from the slavers, Kendra made her way outside and tried to slip off unnoticed. She was a couple hundred yards from the cave entrance when she picked up the sound of running feet approaching and sighing, Kendra turned around and glared at the young man that was following her. "Go back to da cave," She ordered in her most commanding voice.

A voice that needed a bit more work as the young man simply smiled at her before shaking his head.

Glaring at the teenager for a moment, Kendra finally sighed before spinning around and continuing on her way. If she was lucky he would get bored and go away soon.

She was mildly surprised when an hour later the young man was not only keeping up with her, but didn't even look winded yet. Sighing in defeat, Kendra took a position hiding behind the rock she had scouted out earlier and really focused on the young man.

He was a bit taller than Xander, far more muscled with a more of a defined nose. Growling at him for his idiocy, Kendra peeked around the stone and frowned at the lack of movement in the now dead campsite. Making sure she had decent cover, Kendra settled down to wait, trying her best to ignore the persistent stares of the young male.

(Scene Break)

Two hours later Kendra finally looked back at the smiling young man and caved.

"My name is Kendra, "She allowed and groaned silently as the man broke into a smile that showed far too many straight teeth.

"I am Aleacks the bastard, son of Pomegranate," He introduced himself before nodding pleasantly. "I wish to thank you for the rescue last night. I was on my way to my inevitable death in the scum pits of Ur, a most unpleasant fate I am told," he explained as Kendra simply nodded in response and turned back to the deserted campsite to wait.

Five hours later, Kendra tensed slightly because something was finally happening, the sun was rapidly setting and a group of five demons in armor were finally approaching. Shifting backwards into the tall grass, Kendra was surprised to find the male had finally disappeared. Thanking whoever was responsible for such small favors, the slayer prepared for battle when one of the demons gave an unholy scream of pain and toppled to the ground holding its face. The grinning form of Aleacks was standing above his opponent with a small rock blade held easily in his hand.

Growling at losing the element of surprise, Kendra charged into the fight as the distracted demon warriors focused on the mad half-breed they had thought long gone.

As the man that was foretold as the Groosalug would later explain to the humans back at camp, it was a glorious battle.

(Scene Break)

Ducking under the Vampire's swing, Buffy brought her knee up in a rather painful strike to the crotch of the male Vampire before gripping its head tightly and giving it a vicious twist. As the corpse collapsed to the floor, Buffy turned her attention to the next Vampire. Reaching out, she grabbed the glass beer mug and brought it down on the second vampire's head, crushing it.

Stepping back Buffy dropped the blood and brain covered mug and for a moment she considered leaving it at that, but decided that she really needed to send a message.

Walking over to the bar, Buffy ignored the complaining rat masquerading as a bartender and grabbed a bottle from under the counter.

Walking back to the two unfortunate Vampires that had managed to draw her ire, she opened the bottle and upended it over the two and made sure they were well soaked with the alcohol. Swiping the lighter off the table, she ignored the pleas from the paralyzed vampire as she ignited the small device and took a moment to admire the small yellow flame it created before letting it fall.

A small section of Willy's bar was engulfed in blue flames and Buffy made sure she had the attention of the patrons before walking out.

She would not be so pleasant to the next demon that threatened her family.


End file.
